Beast Tale
by Chipendale Johnson
Summary: Once Frisk had discovered what they were, they had decided it wasn't worth living anymore. They had thought that going to Mt. Ebott would do they trick. They were wrong, and it only went downhill from there. Except when it went uphill but that doesn't sound as cool so ignore this. Inspired by the Vamp!Tale AU and the Beastly Underfell AU.
1. Chapter 1

**_Hey, so if you guys are coming from my other stories: sorry I haven't updated in half a year. I'm doing this now. I'm not feeling super inspired to write the other stuff, but once I get my inspiration for that back, I'll start writing it again._**

 ** _And if you're new? Have fun._**

Frisk jumped up, shrieking, and trying to put out the fire that was all over their face. When they had managed that, they took a better look at where they were. It seemed that they were in a deep pit, with golden flowers growing on the patch of grass that was the only area the sun could reach. That explains why their face had been on fire; it was dawn and they had been half-laying on the flower patch. Their mind moved back to the night before, and more depressing things. And why they were in the pit in the first place.

They should have known that it wouldn't work. With their newfound strength and sturdiness, there was no way a simple fall would have done a whole lot of damage. Either way, they were underground now; underground with the monsters where they belonged. Once the first pricks of hunger had begun to poke at their belly and an insatiable thirst had claimed their throat, they realized that they had to leave the surface. Frisk couldn't trust themselves on the surface with this kind of hunger, a hunger that could only be satiated through something Frisk would never be willing to do: harming another person, something that could actually kill.

Frisk could never live a life that depended on the murder and maiming of others, and thus decided that their life had to end. They just didn't realize dying would be so difficult like this. Either way, sitting about would do no good, so Frisk stood. Their hands caught their attention and they looked at how pale they were compared to what they used to be. It would take some getting used to. Dusting themselves off, they headed into the unknown, through foreign halls of an ancient ruin till they reached a door with a riddle inscribed on the wall to its side.

"Only the fearless may proceed. Brave one, foolish ones. Both not walk the middle road." Frisk quickly solved the puzzle and moved forward.

 _If navigating the rest of the ruins will be like this, the journey will at least be entertaining,_ they thought.

They entered the next room and looked around. This room had some clear water flowing under some bridges that were on the path. There were also three switches on the wall, two that were on the path and one that wasn't. The spikes by the doorway retracted when both of the ones on the path were flipped. Frisk entered the next room, which was empty other than the dummy standing to the side of the path. Frisk ignored it and moved further on.

The next room had a strange path on the floor, that didn't seem to go anywhere. When Frisk moved over the hallway, they noticed a sign that said "The western room is the eastern room's blueprint." They weren't sure what that meant, but as they moved onward the meaning became clear. They followed the path from the western room in the eastern room, the spikes on the floor retreating before they hurt them if they continued on the correct path.

When Frisk entered the next room, the first thing that they noticed was that it was incredibly long, and that there was barely anything in it other than a pillar right at the end, and vines covering most of the walls.

After what felt like an eternity of walking, Frisk reached the end of the hallway. Just before they exited the room, however, they heard some strange noises coming from behind the pillar. When they turned around they were shocked to see a small bug creature flying out from behind the pillar, and even more shocked when their soul was drawn out into the fight.

That wasn't the most surprising thing, though. The most surprising thing, though it seemed obvious now that Frisk thought about it, was that their soul had a crack running all the way through it. Of course a vampire's soul would be like that; they are technically dead, after all.

Frisk was drawn out of their thoughts when they heard whimpering. The little bug creature that had initiated the fight with them looked like it'd rather be anywhere but here. They tried to console it, but before they could speak a word it burst into tears and ran away, leaving behind a gold coin. Their soul went back into their chest once the battle had ended. Frisk looked at the coin and decided to pick it up before sitting down by the pillar to think things through.

*Several rooms later…*

After stopping to think over their situation for a while, Frisk had moved on through the ruins, solving more puzzles and meeting more monsters. Most of them had been friendly after they got past their initial fear of the "strange human". (That was what most of the monsters had addressed them as.)

Now, they were in a room with a mouse hole and a piece of cheese that was stuck to a table. They tried pulling it off, and after a while of tugging it came free. Frisk broke of a piece and put it in front of the mouse hole, and tried to eat the rest, hoping it would reduce their hunger. Unfortunately, and rather surprisingly, the cheese turned to ash when they bit it. It seemed they couldn't eat anything anymore.

Sighing sadly, Frisk moved on to the next room, stopping short when they sighted a ghost lying on a pile of leaves and blocking the path. They stood there awkwardly while the ghost repeatedly said "z", before trying to move through it. It was a ghost, so they must be able to walk through it, right?

Their brief sense of accomplishment disappeared when the ghost floated up from where it was lying and said "rude. don't you know it's not nice to walk through ghosts…?" in a melancholic voice. Soon after, Frisk felt their soul being drawn out again and entered the battle.

They had become accustomed to their soul's look, but they were used to the monsters they encountered commenting on it. The ghost was no exception. "oh… your soul… it doesn't look good… are you… okay?" It asked.

"Well, not really, but I can't do much about it. Don't worry, I'll be fine." Frisk replied.

"oh… okay then…" The ghost started crying acid tears, which Frisk looked concerned about.

"I think I should be the one asking if you're okay. Why are you crying?" They asked.

"oh… are you… being nice to me…?" The ghost sounded mildly surprised. "thank you… for being nice, i mean…"

"Are people not usually nice to you?" Frisk asked, upset.

"there are people who are… nice… i just… don't get many people asking me about my problems…" The ghost ended the fight and floated back down to lie on the ground. "oh… my name is napstablook… in case you wanted to know…"

"That's a nice name, Napstablook. My name is Frisk." They sat down next to Napstablook. "Would… would you like to talk about your problems…? You don't have to if you don't want to."

"that might… be nice…" Napstablook sighed. "my main problem is… my cousin... even though he's really nice to me… he still decided to become corporeal after telling me he wouldn't… and now he's having lots of fun following his dreams… but… now i'm lonely… and i'd like him to come back… but… i like seeing him having fun, too… i just don't know what to do…"

Frisk gave Napstablook a sympathetic look and said, "That does sound like a problem. How about… I can be your friend and you won't be lonely, but you can still support your cousin?"

"that… sounds really… nice… thank you… strange human…" Napstablook said before disappearing. With a jolt, Frisk realised that they had forgotten what they had become, and the reason they had come down here in the first place. The thought that they would just end up hurting Napstablook when they starved made them feel guilty.

*Several more rooms later…*

After leaving the area that they had encountered Napstablook, Frisk had headed forward, before realising that they were going towards a dead end, and turning back to the correct path. Along the path were a few more puzzles and some new monsters, and at the end of the path they had found an old dead tree, and a neat and tidy house.

Frisk looked up at the arches and ridges of the small home, before heading forward and entering the house. The inside was much like the outside, neat and tidy, but it was clearly abandoned as there wasn't any furniture and everything was covered in a fine layer of dust. Surprisingly, there were no cobwebs.

After looking around and finding nothing of interest, Frisk headed down the stairway in front of the entrance. They found a long hallway which ended by a big door with a symbol on it. They pushed open the door and headed through another long hallway. At the end of the hallway, there was another big door, which was harder to open. Harder being a relative term, since neither of the doors had been too hard to open with their new strength.

Their thoughts were interrupted as cold air rushed past, brushing their hair and chilling them down to the bone. At least they were wearing their favourite sweater, or this trip would be a slightly unpleasant. Not like they could die from the cold, though. They stepped out into the chill and took everything in. There was a cobble road leading through a pine forest, and snow caked the earth and trees. It was a pretty sight to take in, but Frisk didn't feel like enjoying the scenery, and so they continued down the path and into the woods.

Soon, they noticed a branch lying across the path. The sight of it instinctively made them nervous, as, unlike the cold, that _could_ kill them. They stepped over it, noticing how it looked too heavy for anyone to be able to wield it anyway. As they walked, they heard the branch break. They turned, and saw nothing – except the branch, which had been smashed to pieces. A few moments later, there was a footstep. When they turned, no one was there. Although Frisk appreciated a good joke and scare, they were a little nervous that someone had managed to crush the branch as if it were nothing.

Shortly after they came across a bridge with wooden beams across it, but those beams and bars were too far apart to stop anyone from going through, and Frisk had to wonder what the point of them was. Before they could walk through it, however, they heard footsteps behind them.

" _you. don't you know how to greet a new pal? turn around and shake my hand._ " Came an ominous voice from behind them, and Frisk turned, extending their hand to meet another, cold and bony. Standing in front of them was a skeleton, dressed rather casually in shorts and a blue hoodie. When they shook hands, there was a rather awkward farting noise. A whoopee cushion.

"heheh, the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it's _always_ funny. anyways, so you're… something like a human, right? that's hilarious. i'm sans. sans the skeleton. haven't seen anything like you since… well, ever. my brother, papyrus, has been hoping to meet a new human. actually, I think that's him over there. come on, i have an idea." The small skeleton said, giving a light shrug before leading Frisk through the gateway and to what seemed like a sentry post, with a rather oddly shaped lamp nearby.

"quick, behind that conveniently shaped lamp." Sans said, pointing to the lamp.

"What? Okay, sure." Frisk mumbled, heading over to the lamp and standing next to it. This was absolutely ridiculous; the other skeleton was going to see them. Although, why that was a bad thing was entirely beyond them, but they figured they were about to see, as the taller skeleton came by in a much more ridiculous outfit. It suited him.

"sup, bro?" Sans says casually, putting his hands in the pouch of his hoodie.

"YOU KNOW WHAT'S 'SUP', BROTHER! IT'S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T… RECALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES! YOU JUST HANG AROUND OUTSIDE YOUR STATION! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!" Papyrus shouted.

"staring at this lamp. it's really cool. do you wanna look?" Sans replied, once again with a light shrug.

 _Not that this plan was good to begin with, but he's throwing it off even more by just putting his attention on the lamp that I'm standing next to,_ Frisk thought to themselves.

"NO! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT!" Papyrus replied angrily, stomping the ground. "WHAT IF A NEW HUMAN COMES THROUGH HERE!? I WANT TO BE READY! IF I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, NOTIFY THE KING AND QUEEN ABOUT A NEW HUMAN, THEN THE ENTIRE ROYAL FAMILY WILL WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH ME! MAYBE EVEN CHARA! I'LL FINALLY BE ABLE TO PROPERLY JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD! PEOPLE WILL ASK, TO, BE MY, 'FRIEND'? I WILL BATHE IN A SHOWER OF KISSES EVERY MORNING."

"hmmm. maybe this lamp will help you."

 _Seriously Sans, you are not helping! Also, why has Papyrus not seen me yet?_ Frisk was quite confused.

"SANS! YOU ARE NOT HELPING! YOU LAZYBONES! ALL YOU DO IS SIT AND BOONDOGGLE! YOU GET LAZIER AND LAZIER EVERY DAY!"

"hey, take it easy. i've gotten a ton of work done today. a skele-ton." Out of nowhere, one of those drum rimshot sounds played, but Frisk didn't bother complaining because it covered up their laughter pretty well.

"SANS!"

"come on. you're smiling."

"I AM AND I HATE IT! *SIGH*… WHY DOES SOMEONE AS GREAT AS ME… HAVE TO DO SO MUCH JUST TO GET SOME RECOGNITION…"

"wow, sounds like you're really working yourself… down to the bone." The rimshot played again.

"UGH! I WILL ATTEND TO MY PUZZLES… AS FOR YOUR WORK? PUT A LITTLE MORE, 'BACKBONE' INTO IT! NYEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE! HEH!" Papyrus did his strange laugh while leaving the area.

"ok, you can come out now." Sans said to Frisk. They stepped out from behind the lamp, bewildered as to why Papyrus couldn't see them.

"you oughta get going. he might come back. and if he does…" Sans winked. "…you'll have to sit through more of my hilarious jokes."

Frisk half-smiled and headed over to inspect the sentry station. There were bottles of ketchup, mustard and relish sitting inside. Frisk quickly averted their gaze from the bottle of ketchup, as it reminded them of how hungry they were and also of what they needed to consume in order to not be hungry.

Feeling more uncomfortable than before, they started down the path that Papyrus had taken, as it seemed to be the only other direction they could go. Before they left the area, however, they heard Sans calling to them. "actually, hey… hate to bother ya, but can you do me a favour? i was thinking… my brother's been kinda down lately. if you could let him escort you around and keep pretending to be human, it might just make his day." Frisk decided that it'd be nice to make Papyrus feel better, seeing as he didn't seem to have many friends. But before they could reply to Sans, he said, "thanks a million. i'll be up ahead." He then walked in the opposite direction.

 _What strange skeletons,_ Frisk thought.


	2. Chapter 2

After having looked at a magic box that would apparently transport your belongings from place to place (which was useless to them, as the only belongings they had were their clothes), Frisk moved along the path until they saw Papyrus talking to Sans up ahead.

 _How did he get here faster than me? There's something up with him,_ Frisk thought.

"SO, AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE-" Papyrus cut off as he saw Frisk standing there. He looked at Frisk and then looked back at Sans. Sans looked at Papyrus, then back at Frisk. They both kept switching their gaze, and eventually started spinning around.

 _Seriously. What is up with these skeletons?_ Frisk thought, just before they both stopped and stared at them, Papyrus with a shocked/happy expression, and Sans with an amused expression.

"SANS! OH MY GOD! IS THAT… A HUMAN!?"

"ehh, pretty much."

"OH MY GOD! SANS! I FINALLY DID IT! UNDYNE WILL… I'M GONNA… I'LL BE SO… POPULAR! POPULAR! POPULAR! …*AHEM* HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL ESCORT YOU TO THE CAPITAL! THEN… THEN! I'M NOT SURE WHAT'S NEXT. IN ANY CASE! PLEASE COME THIS WAY! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!"

"well, that went well. don't sweat it kid. i'll keep an eyesocket out for ya." Sans followed Papyrus out of the area, with Frisk closely behind him.

The rest of the walk went about the same way, with Papyrus running ahead and shouting about puzzles and usually accidentally solving them for Frisk, and Sans tagging along and not really helping much. Or at all. They also encountered quite a few dogs, but they were all too afraid of Frisk's smell to approach, even with the prospect of bones. All the other monsters kept their distance as well, but Frisk wasn't sure if that was because of them or because Papyrus was yelling at Sans about being lazy the whole way. Either way, their soul hadn't been revealed to the two skeletons yet, but everyone but Papyrus seemed to be aware that they weren't a normal human (or human at all) anyway. The monsters around here also seemed to be more wary than the ones in the ruins.

Eventually, after hearing many, many puns and seeing Papyrus break physics a couple of times, they arrived at what seemed to be the end of the path, for now. It appeared to be a town, creatively named "Snowdin Town".

"THIS IS SNOWDIN, HOME OF PAPYRUS! THAT'S THE SLOGAN, RIGHT?" Papyrus asked no one in particular.

"uhh, i dunno about that bro." Sans replied.

"WELL THEN I'LL START A PETITION TO CHANGE THE SLOGAN!" Papyrus's shouting had drawn a lot of attention, and almost all of the people outside the houses were looking at Frisk. They shifted uncomfortably, studying the town and the people who lived in it – who seemed to be studying them right back. The buildings that they could see at the moment were the shop and the inn, which both seemed to be run by rabbit monsters. They were also connected. There was another magic box outside them.

"THE INN'S A GREAT PLACE TO STAY. THE LADY WHO RUNS IT IS REALLY NICE. SHE ALWAYS GIVES ME A LOLLIPOP AND A PAT ON THE HEAD." Papyrus commented.

The townspeople seemed to lose interest in the small group, so Frisk looked at them more closely. Lots of them seemed to be furry animals, like rabbits or bears, but there were a couple others that were different, yet still suited for the cold, such as… an armless… dragon monster? Strange. A lot of the monsters they could see were grouped around a Christmas tree that had presents underneath it.

 _Interesting._ _I wasn't aware monsters celebrated Christmas too…_ Frisk thought. In front of the Christmas tree was an igloo thing with a sign next to it that said it connected underground tunnels to make it easier to travel to the other side of town. _Seems useful._

There was also another building to the side of the tunnel igloo, but it looked just like a living house.

The three of them moved past the Christmas tree and Papyrus seemed like he wanted to keep going, but Sans stopped in front of a big building that had "Grillby's" written in big letters on a sign above it.

"UGH… GRILLBY'S... IT'S DARK AND FULL OF GREASE. PURGATORY OF FRIES... HAMBURGER ABYSS... ANYWAY, MY BROTHER PRACTICALLY LIVES IN THERE." Papyrus commented disdainfully.

"yeah, that sounds about right. anyway, i'm going to get a snack. have fun you two." Sans said, before heading inside.

"I'D FOLLOW HIM JUST TO TAKE HIM OUTSIDE AGAIN, BUT TO DO THAT I'D HAVE TO GO INSIDE, AND I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT. SO I GUESS IT'S JUST YOU AND ME NOW, HUMAN!" Past Grillby's were a couple more strange monsters and a path split, with one way going north and the other going east. To the east there was also another large building called the… librarby? It took a couple seconds for it to click, but eventually Frisk realised it was a library. "I LOVE THE LIBRARY. THE BOOKS ARE ALL ARRANGED BY COLOR… THIS SENSE OF ORDER! IT FILLS ME WITH POWER!"

Frisk took a detour to see what was up north, but realised it was only a small area, with another house that had some living rock creatures in front of it, and some strange ice making machine that a werewolf-like creature was picking huge blocks of ice out of and throwing them into a river. Papyrus, who had followed Frisk, said "THAT FURRY PERSON THROWS ICE ALL DAY. NOBODY KNOWS WHERE IT GOES. HYPNOTIZING, ISN'T IT?" They agreed and headed back down to the proper path.

Right past the library was a big house with two mailboxes next to it, one of which was overflowing with mail, and the other empty. For some reason, Frisk had the urge to look inside the empty one, which was labelled "PAPYRUS".

"HOW NICE OF YOU TO CHECK MY MAIL FOR ME! …WAIT, NO. THAT'S VERY STRANGE." Papyrus said when they took a look inside. They shot an amused look at him before looking back inside the mailbox. "STOP LOOKING IN MY EMPTY MAILBOX. THAT'S MY EMPTINESS, NOT YOURS."

When Frisk straightened up and moved along, Papyrus said "THIS IS MY HOUSE! THOUGH I GUESS IT'S TECHNICALLY SANS'S HOUSE TOO. BUT I PREFER NOT TO DISCUSS HIS PART OF IT. HIS ROOM IS... IT'S LIKE ANOTHER WORLD! A WORLD WHERE THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO VACUUM. YOU'RE BEST STAYING AWAY FROM THAT STRANGE PLACE." Frisk laughed at that.

"SO, HUMAN. WE'VE BEEN TRAVELLING FOR A WHILE NOW… WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME INSIDE AND REST? OR EAT? OR SOMETHING ELSE HUMANS DO?" Papyrus offered.

"Well, actually Papyrus… I'm not really like most humans, so I don't need to rest, or eat." Frisk said. It wasn't exactly true – they still had to consume blood, but it was true that they didn't need to rest.

"REALLY? WOWIE! THAT'S JUST LIKE ME! EXCEPT I STILL EAT." Frisk looked at Papyrus curiously, but made no comment.

"WELL, IF WE AREN'T GOING TO GO INSIDE… THEN I GUESS IT'S TIME…" Papyrus said, offering no explanation as he rushed off to the east, past another igloo and what looked like a shed.

Confused, Frisk wandered after him, until the snow started getting very thick. They stopped, barely able to see anything through all the snow, until Papyrus's silhouette appeared. "HUMAN. I AM SORRY FOR THIS, BUT TO PROCEED TO WATERFALL… YOU WILL HAVE TO FIGHT ME. IT WAS NOT MY IDEA, BUT MY FRIEND UNDYNE'S. SHE WANTED ME TO TEST YOU BEFORE LETTING YOU INTO WATERFALL, AND IF YOU PASS THE TEST SHE WILL GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE AREA."

Frisk shrugged, unconcerned. Their powers made them stronger, faster and more resilient than all of the monsters they had met so far. They hadn't been hit once. Why would this be any different? "That's all right, Papyrus. Let's get this over with, okay?"

"IF YOU SAY SO, HUMAN!" Papyrus drew out Frisk's soul and initiated the battle. He gasped dramatically as he saw their soul. "HUMAN! YOUR SOUL! IT LOOKS NOT OKAY! ARE YOU OKAY?! ACTUALLY… NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT, YOU LOOK NOT TOO OKAY EITHER! YOUR EYES ARE ALL RED AND BLOODSHOT!"

"Yes, I'm fine Papyrus." Frisk consoled him, though they were worrying about their eyes. They were getting hungrier and hungrier... What if they couldn't hold themselves back if something happened? "It's been like that for a while. Shall we get on with the battle?"

"HMM… WELL, IF YOU SAY SO HUMAN! I TRUST YOU!" It was Frisk's turn first, so they decided to do the logical thing; what anyone would do in a situation like this…

Flirt!

"Hey Papyrus, if you were a vegetable, you'd be a CUTEcumber!" They said, snickering to themselves when Papyrus looked rather flustered. They weren't sure if it was from the flirting or the pun, but it didn't really matter.

"WHAT?! FL-FLIRTING!? SO YOU FINALLY REVEAL YOUR ULTIMATE FEELINGS! W-WELL! I'M A SKELETON WITH VERY HIGH STANDARDS!" Papyrus stuttered.

"I have zero redeeming qualities." They replied.

"OH NO! THAT HUMILITY… IT REMINDS ME OF, MYSELF! YOU'RE MEETING ALL MY STANDARDS! I GUESS THIS MEANS I HAVE TO GO ON A DATE WITH YOU...? LET'S DATE L-LATER! AFTER I CAPTURE YOU!" Papyrus sent a wave of bones at Frisk, none of which went anywhere near them. They didn't even need to move. They decided that they didn't want to risk hurting him, since they really didn't know exactly how strong they were.

"I don't particularly want to fight you, Papyrus…" They said.

"SO YOU WON'T FIGHT… THEN, LET'S SEE IF YOU CAN HANDLE MY FABLED 'BLUE ATTACK'!" Papyrus sent a wave of bones towards them in a manner that was much more deadly than his last attack; but the bones were all blue, so Frisk just stood completely still and nothing happened to them. Sans had warned them about this attack.

However, just at the end of the attack, they felt their soul get dragged down, and their body with it. As they tried to get up, they noticed that their soul had turned blue, instead of its normal red. Before they could process this information, they felt a sharp pain in their whole body as a small bone they hadn't noticed hit their soul.

"YOU'RE BLUE NOW. THAT'S MY ATTACK! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus cackled. He soon noticed something was off, though, as Frisk snapped their head back up with their now completely bloodshot eyes glaring at Papyrus. They dug their feet into the ground, which seemed to have grown claws, along with their hands. They pushed against the effects of their blue soul while growling in primal rage. Before Papyrus could react, they pounced at him like an animal, ripping at him with their claws, tearing through his battle body's armour and snapping his spine.

Papyrus stared up at Frisk in shock as his body turned to dust, watching as their body went back to normal. As soon as Frisk went back to normal they gasped in shock at what they'd done and started sobbing.

"Papyrus...! I-I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry!" They exclaimed as their body was wracked with sobs.

"IT'S OKAY, HUMAN! IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" Papyrus said, before his head turned to dust as well, leaving just his scarf in the snow.

 _WHATHAVEIDONEWHATDIDI – PAPYRUS!_ Frisk thought in panic. _Oh, god, I'm so sorry Papyrus… I wish… I wish I could just turn back time…_

They wished it with all their heart as they heard Sans approaching and calling "hey, kiddo, where's paps?"

*TIME TRAVEL NOISES COMMENCE*

"…MY FABLED 'BLUE ATTACK'!" Papyrus said as he sent a wave of blue bones towards Frisk. They were so startled they almost forgot to stay still, but remembering what had happened the last time they had been hit they forced themselves to stand still. While they were trying to wrap their head around what had happened ( _What was that? Was I hallucinating? If so, why was it so lifelike?)_ , they felt themselves get dragged down again. They quickly lifted themselves to their feet and avoided the small bone that had caught them off guard last time. They decided to concentrate on not getting hit again and think about what had happened after the battle was over.

"YOU'RE BLUE NOW. THAT'S MY ATTACK! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus cackled once again.

*Meanwhile…*

 _I could've sworn this just happened…_


	3. Chapter 3

"WELL...! *HUFF* IT'S CLEAR... YOU CAN'T! *HUFF* DEFEAT ME! YEAH! I CAN SEE YOU SHAKING IN YOUR BOOTS! THEREFORE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, ELECT TO GRANT YOU PITY! I WILL SPARE YOU, HUMAN! NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO ACCEPT MY MERCY."

Frisk sighed in relief when the battle ended. It had been extremely tough to avoid all of Papyrus's attacks, but they had managed it. They were drawn out of their thoughts when they heard Papyrus talking again.

"WELL! IT SEEMS YOU'VE PASSED THE TEST, AND WITH SUCH GRACE AND SKILL, TOO! UNDYNE'S GOING TO BE IMPRESSED BY YOU. BUT... I DON'T REALLY WANT YOU TO LEAVE YET… WHO WILL I TALK TO WHEN YOU'RE GONE? AND EVEN WORSE, MY FRIEND QUANTITY WILL REMAIN STAGNANT!"

"We can be friends, Papyrus!" Frisk said, although they were feeling even worse for being unable to control themselves now that they knew he doesn't want them to leave.

"REALLY!? YOU WANT TO BE FRIENDS, WITH ME? WELL THEN... I GUESS... I GUESS I CAN MAKE AN ALLOWANCE FOR YOU! WOWIE! WE HAVEN'T EVEN HAD OUR FIRST DATE... AND I'VE ALREADY MANAGED TO HIT THE FRIEND ZONE!" Frisk laughed. "WHO KNEW THAT ALL I NEEDED TO MAKE PALS... WAS TO GIVE PEOPLE AWFUL PUZZLES AND THEN FIGHT THEM? YOU TAUGHT ME A LOT, HUMAN. I HEREBY GRANT YOU PERMISSION TO PASS THROUGH! ANYWAY! THAT'S ENOUGH TALKING! I'LL BE AT HOME BEING A COOL FRIEND! FEEL FREE TO COME BY AND HAVE THAT DATE! _NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!_ " Papyrus then proceeded to do one of the most impossible things Frisk had seen him do so far, which was fly over their head and back to his house.

As they were watching him fly off, they caught a glimpse of Sans watching both of them from the treeline. They waved at him and he lazily waved back, before heading off in the direction of Grillby's again. Frisk watched him leave curiously, and a bit guiltily. They had heard him calling them and walking over here in the hallucination (?), but hadn't seen him come here this time. Maybe he had just not called, since he could see them already. They had to wonder, though, whether anyone else had the hallucination either, and whether they had remembered. Papyrus clearly didn't, that was for sure, but Papyrus didn't seem to notice much anyway.

While pondering this, Frisk was walking back to Papyrus and Sans's house, which Papyrus was standing in front of.

"SO YOU CAME BACK TO HAVE A DATE WITH ME!" Papyrus exclaimed. "YOU MUST BE REALLY SERIOUS ABOUT THIS… I'LL HAVE TO TAKE YOU SOMEPLACE REALLY SPECIAL… A PLACE I LIKE TO SPEND A LOT OF TIME!" Papyrus concluded, before running off into town with Frisk following at a quick pace. Just before they got to Grillby's, however, Papyrus took a U-turn and went straight back to his house, with Frisk tagging behind confusedly.

"MY HOUSE!" Papyrus shouted, before entering the house. Frisk headed inside after him and was immediately greeted by a variety of weird and amusing things. There appeared to be one floor with the living area and kitchen, and another floor with the bedrooms. On a table to the right of the entrance was a rock on a plate. "THAT'S MY BROTHER'S PET ROCK. HE ALWAYS FORGETS TO FEED IT. AS USUAL, I HAVE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY." The rock was covered in sprinkles.

Frisk continued to inspect many of the items in the household, earning amusing comments from Papyrus – and 20G from the couch. At one point Sans even popped out of his room to play on his trombone. Speaking of Sans' room, something was up with it. It had fire coming out from under the door! Maybe Papyrus wasn't kidding when he said it was a world of its own.

After trying to open the door and realising it was locked, Frisk moved on to Papyrus's room. The door had a sign on it that said "NO GIRLS ALLOWED. NO BOYS ALLOWED. PAPYRUS ALLOWED."

"THAT'S MY ROOM! IF YOU'VE FINISHED LOOKING AROUND… WE COULD GO IN AND… DO WHATEVER PEOPLE DO WHEN THEY DATE?" They entered the room and looked around. Next to the doorway was a box filled with bones. "HEY, THOSE ARE ALL THE ATTACKS I USED ON YOU. GREAT MEMORIES, HUH? SEEMS LIKE IT WAS ONLY YESTERDAY… EVEN THOUGH IT BASICALLY JUST HAPPENED."

Frisk moved around and inspected some more things, gaining more comments from Papyrus. It was the only reason they were still doing it, really. "THE INTERNET! I'M QUITE POPULAR THERE. I'M JUST A DOZEN AWAY… FROM A DOUBLE DIGIT FOLLOWER COUNT! OF COURSE, FAME HAS A STEEP PRICE… A JEALOUS TROLL HAS BESEIGED MY ONLINE PERSONA. ALWAYS SENDING ME BAD PUNS IN A GOOFY FONT…" Frisk snickered at that and moved on to other items in the room.

"THAT'S MY CLOEST! THERE ARE NO SKELETONS IN THERE… EXCEPT ME, SOMETIMES." Papyrus said when Frisk looked at the closet.

"ISN'T THAT FLAG NEATO? UNDYNE FOUND IT AT THE BAY… I THINK IT'S FROM THE HUMAN WORLD? NOW, I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING. WHY WOULD A HUMAN FLAG… HAVE A COOL SKELETON ON IT? WELL… I HAVE A THEORY. I THINK HUMANS… MUST HAVE DESCENDED FROM SKELETONS!" Papyrus said when Frisk inspected the pirate flag on his wall.

 _Well, that's a logical conclusion given the evidence he has, I guess,_ Frisk thought.

"THAT'S MY BED!" It was shaped like a sports car. "IF I EVER GET TO THE SURFACE, I'D LIKE TO DRIVE DOWN A LONG HIGHWAY. WIND IN MY HAIR… SUN ON MY SKIN… OF COURSE, THAT'S JUST A DREAM. SO INSTEAD I CRUISE WHILE I SNOOZE."

After Frisk was done looking at everything, they went to talk to Papyrus. "SO, UM… IF YOU'VE SEEN EVERYTHING… DO YOU WANT TO START THE DATE?"

"Yeah, sure, Papyrus." They replied.

"OKAY! DATING START!" Papyrus exclaimed, drawing out Frisk's soul and into what seemed to them like a battle, but without the threat of death.

 _This is different to human dating for sure…_ They thought.

*One date later…*

When Papyrus had pulled out the spaghetti from under his hat and Frisk had seen the red tomato sauce, they had to fight back the urges to maim and kill. They had managed to not do anything drastic, but they could feel claws growing slightly where their fingers usually were, and suspected their eyes had gone more bloodshot. After attempting to eat the piece of spaghetti that Papyrus had offered them and feeling it turn to ash in their mouth, they decided not to try and eat anything else. (Especially since they felt quite bad when they saw Papyrus's look after he figured out they couldn't eat his spaghetti.)

They had also dealt with Papyrus's rejection pretty well, since they hadn't really expected to be going on a date with him anyway. And after he had offered them his phone number and realised that they didn't actually have a phone he gave them one of his old ones, too, so at least they gained that out of the whole thing. Before they left, though, they decided to test if the phone actually worked.

"WOW! IT ONLY TOOK YOU FOUR SECONDS TO CALL ME! YOU MUST BE VERY DESPERATE FOR MY HELP! WELL! DO NOT FEAR! THIS IS PAPYRUS'S HOTFUL HELPLINE! JUST DESCRIBE YOUR LOCATION, AND...! I WILL DESCRIBE SOME HOT TIPS! SO, WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Oh, I'm still in your room-"

"... ... YOU'RE STILL IN MY ROOM? ... HAVE YOU HEARD OF SOMETHING CALLED A... DOOR? WAIT! DON'T WORRY! I'LL DRAW A DIAGRAM FOR YOU!" They laughed at that, but before they could reply he hung up – probably to draw that diagram for them. They called him again to tell him that they'd be fine, but… "HOLD UP! I'M STILL DRAWING!" … he just hung up after telling them he was still drawing.

Frisk decided it'd probably be better to go and tell him in person. After doing that, Papyrus offered to escort them the rest of the way to Waterfall. They agreed, since they'd miss his company, even though they had his number.

"THIS IS WHERE I TESTED YOU! WHAT A TERRIBLE MEMORY!" They snapped out of their thoughts and looked at Papyrus suspiciously. He wasn't looking in their direction, so he didn't catch the look.

 _What does he mean by that…? He seemed to be having fun while we were battling… Maybe he knows more than he's letting on…_ Frisk thought, while Papyrus continued chatting.

"WATERFALL... I BARELY KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT. BUT I'LL DO MY BEST TO INFORM YOU!" They paused to look around. They were heading into what seemed to be a series of smaller caverns inside the big cavern that was the Underground, with a river flowing by the edge of the path. The big ice blocks they had seen earlier were floating down the river. Most of the snow seemed to have melted, too.

The two of them continued walking and eventually reached an area with a couple of monsters in it, including Sans, who seemed to have another sentry station here as well. Strangely, the station had snow on it. Papyrus saw them looking and said, "YES, HE MANS TWO STATIONS AT ONCE. AMAZING, ISN'T HE? HE SLACKS OFF TWICE AS MUCH AS NORMAL! ORDINARY FOLKS CAN ONLY DREAM OF SUCH SLOTH... WELL, I'LL BE LEAVING YOU HERE! UNDYNE SHOULD GET HERE AT ANY MOMENT, SO I'M SURE SANS WILL KEEP AN EYE ON YOU WHILE YOU'RE WAITING. ISN'T THAT RIGHT, SANS?"

Sans jolted awake and murmured "nngghh… yeah, paps, whatever you say…" before falling asleep again. Papyrus muttered "UGH" loudly before stalking off. When they looked back, Sans had one eye open and his grin was slightly larger than usual.

They had a closer look around the room. There were two other people in there with them, not including Sans, and a strange flower. One of the people was the armless dragon monster who they'd seen in Snowdin earlier, who seemed to be a bit younger than them, and the other was a fish monster who was standing next to the strange flower. They approached the fish monster and asked about the flower, and he seemed more than happy to explain. Apparently it was called an "echo flower" and it repeats the last words it's heard. They also went to talk to the monster kid, who rambled on about some woman and how cool she was, before asking Frisk not to tell its parents it was here. There was also a waterfall flowing down into a dark pit in the middle of the room.

Finally, they went over to talk to Sans. "hey, kid. wanna know the best thing about having more jobs? you get twice as more legally required breaks." Frisk snorted in amusement before commenting that it didn't seem like he needed it to be legally required to do it. "heh, yeah. speaking of breaks, i'm going to grillby's. wanna come?"

"Sure, why not?" Frisk replied.

"well, if you insist… i'll pry myself away from my work…" Sans got up and exited his sentry station, before heading in the opposite direction to Snowdin. "over here. i know a shortcut."

They moved to follow him, but before they could they were suddenly in Grillby's. They shot Sans a suspicious look, which he didn't seem to notice. "fast shortcut, huh? hey, everyone." Sans got a few hello's back from the other people in the bar, but most of them were watching Frisk warily. They recognised some of them as the dogs they had seen back in the forest, but they hadn't seen any of the others before. Also the bartender was made of fire.

As they moved towards the bar someone called out. "Hey Sans, weren't you just here for breakfast a few minutes ago?"

"nah, i haven't had breakfast in at least half an hour." He winked. "you must be thinking of brunch." A rimshot went off and the other monsters in the bar laughed and relaxed slightly, although they were still watching Frisk closely. Sans gestured to one of the bar stools and said "here, get comfy." before moving to sit down on the one next to it. Frisk sat down and heard a whoopee cushion go off. They gave Sans an annoyed look as he said "whoops, watch where you sit down. sometimes weirdos put whoopee cushions on the seats. anyway, let's order. whaddya want…?"

"Oh, don't worry about me. I don't need anything." Frisk looked away from Sans, his gaze unnerving them.

"alright then. grillby, i'll have the burg." The bartender went through a door that was behind the bar, while Sans pulled out a comb and started… combing his… skull?

 _Maybe he thinks it's funny._

"so, what do you think… of my brother?" They were startled out of their thoughts as Sans asked the question. Another pang of guilt twisted inside of them, and they looked away again before answering in a quiet voice.

"He's really nice… and trusting. And funny. He's… cool."

"of course he's cool. we live in snowdin." Sans chuckled at his joke, and you laughed slightly. "you know his outfit? he'd only take that thing off if he absolutely had to."

 _But he took it off for the date…? Was he just trying to make me happy?_ Everything Frisk learnt about Papyrus made them feel worse and worse about themselves.

"oh well. at least he washes it. and by that i mean he wears it in the shower." Sans continued, before pausing the conversation when Grillby came back with his burger. Sans pulled out some ketchup from his hoodie. They thought he would put it on the burger, but instead he drank it. Frisk didn't have too much time to contemplate that, though, before they turned their head away. They could feel the hunger become very apparent as their claws started growing, but once again they held it back. By that time, Sans had finished the bottle of ketchup and was watching Frisk closely.

"anyway, cool or not, you have to agree papyrus tries real hard."

"Y-yeah." Frisk agreed, voice strained.

"like how he keeps trying to be part of the royal guard. one day, he went to the house of the head of the royal guard… and begged her to let him be in it. of course, she shut the door on him because it was midnight. but the next day, she woke up and saw him still waiting there. seeing his dedication, she decided to give him warrior training. he's been an apprentice in the guard for a while, but… it's, uh, still a work in progress." Sans turned away to finish his burger. She took the opportunity to relax and become a little less manic.

"oh yeah, i wanted to ask you something." Suddenly, everyone froze. Frisk whirled back to face Sans. He was watching them, again. "back when you were fighting paps… you looked like you got pretty shocked when you saw his blue attack. any reason for that? i did warn you about it."

He seemed to be waiting for an answer, but as Frisk wracked their brain they couldn't seem to come up with a good excuse. After an awkward amount of time with the two of them staring at each other, he seemed to give up on getting an answer. Time resumed as normal, and he got off his barstool.

"welp, that was a long break. i can't believe i let ya pull me away from work for that long." Sans walked over to the exit, turning back to look at you when he was in front of the door. "by the way… i was going to say something, but i forgot." Then he left.

Instantly, the atmosphere in the bar went tense, with every monster there looking directly at Frisk. Some sort of bird monster coughed nervously before saying, "Grillbz says no bar fights."

Frisk decided that it'd be a good time to leave.

They got off of the bar stool they were sitting on and quickly made their way to the exit. So quickly, in fact, that no one even saw them move – they were just sitting down and then gone in a second. As they stood outside, shocked at their own speed, they thought it was nice that being a vampire at least had a couple perks.


	4. Chapter 4

As Frisk noticed some of the townspeople looking at them closely, they moved back through Snowdin in the direction of Waterfall. Sans was nowhere in sight, and honestly? They weren't too upset about that. He was much scarier than he had first seemed.

 _I should get rid of him, so that he doesn't pose a threat to me in the future…_ Frisk thought. After a second they realised what they had thought and felt with horrified. _What? No! I don't want to hurt him! I don't want to hurt anyone!_

Frisk was snapped out of their thoughts when they heard Papyrus calling to them from where he was standing outside his house. "HUMAN? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE WAITING FOR UNDYNE!"

"Oh, hey Papyrus… uh, yeah I'm going back there now, I was just… hanging with Sans at Grillby's for a bit." Frisk replied nervously, still thinking back on their strange thoughts. They were also thinking back on Sans's threat.

… _Did Sans threaten me? I don't think he did, actually…_ Frisk thought, before adding, _it was implied, though._

"UGH, OF COURSE SANS WOULD TAKE YOU TO GRILLBY'S… DIDN'T I WARN YOU ABOUT THAT PLACE?" Papyrus looked like he was about to start a rant about why Grillby's was bad again.

"Yeah. Yeah, you did. Don't worry; I don't think I'll be going back there." Papyrus seemed pleased. "Anyway, I should be getting back to waiting for this 'Undyne'."

"ALRIGHT! DON'T FORGET TO CALL!" Papyrus yelled as Frisk headed back towards Waterfall. After assuring him they wouldn't forget, they moved out of his sight before trying to access that super speed they seemed to possess.

After accidentally running into a couple trees, they finally got the hang of it – albeit not without having to push down their hunger on multiple occasions after hurting themselves.

Once Frisk got the hang of their newfound speed powers, they sped off to the waiting point. When they got there, it seemed as if nothing had changed. The flower man, the monster kid, even Sans was sitting in his original spot – although he seemed to be watching them a lot more.

They nervously headed over to his sentry station. When they were standing quite close, all he said was "we should hang out again sometime." Then he fell silent again. Frisk shifted uncomfortably.

Fortunately, they didn't need to be uncomfortable for long, as soon after they heard someone yelling from further in Waterfall. "HEY! HEY SANS! ARE YOU HERE?!" The yelling was getting slightly louder, signifying that whoever it was doing the yelling (and Frisk had a pretty good idea of who it was) was getting closer.

Suddenly, a huge figure came through the hallway that leads further into Waterfall. The figure was completely clad in metal armour, with a big red thing that could've been a feather but could also easily be hair coming out of the helmet. "PAPYRUS CALLED ME JUST A WHILE AGO AND SAID THAT-"

The figure froze in what seemed to be shock, although it was hard to tell when their face was covered by a helmet. They seemed equally torn between looking at Frisk and also looking at Sans. "…He said that a human came through here." The figure finished. "Wow, Sans. I didn't expect you to be awake. Also. Is that a human? I can't tell."

Before Frisk or Sans could answer, the armless monster child interrupted them by running in between the figure and themselves and Sans. The monster kid tripped and fell over but pulled itself back up, already exclaiming "YO! UNDYNE! I've been waiting for, like, forever to talk to you! You're the coolest! Did you say something about a human?! Can I help you escort them?"

The figure, who Frisk now knew to be Undyne, seemed pleased at the praise. Undyne took the helmet off, which revealed a female humanoid fish face, which had a huge toothy grin on it. The red stuff was hair, pulled into a ponytail. "HELL YEAH I'M THE COOLEST! …Uhh, I mean… HECK YEAH!" Undyne's grin looked slightly more sheepish now.

She moved her focus back onto Frisk and Sans. "And about the human… SANS! Explain!"

Before Sans could say anything, Frisk (who was getting slightly annoyed about being referred to as "the human" and not actually being talked to) said "Would it kill you to be at least slightly polite? No one has even asked my name yet, and you're all talking as if I'm not standing right here."

Undyne, Sans and the monster kid stared intensely at Frisk for an awkward amount of time. It seemed to be something that was happening a lot more than they would like.

Eventually, MK (monster kid) broke the silence by shouting "Yo! You're human?!"

"Something like that, yes." Frisk replied, while staring back at Undyne and Sans with equal intensity.

Suddenly, Undyne laughed and slapped them on the back, which caused them to grit their teeth as to not brutally murder her. "I LIKE you, punk! You're sassy! This will be loads of fun!" Undyne said excitedly. She didn't seem to notice that Frisk was tensed up and changing back and forth from slightly human to mostly monster. Neither did MK, as they were too busy looking at Undyne.

Sans noticed, of course, but he didn't do anything. Just watch them. Study them. He still hadn't said anything to contribute to the conversation yet.

While a part of Frisk was grateful Sans hadn't spilled the beans on them not being very human at all, another part of them wanted him to tell everyone he could because that way people would be able to know what precautions to take if they were around.

 _No, wait. It's good that Sans is the only one who seems to know more than that something's off! If I kill him, NO ONE WILL KNOW!_ Frisk thought, before once again feeling horrified at themselves. _It's just the hunger talking, it's just the hunger talking…_

They repeated this to themselves over and over, trying to block out the invasive thoughts, but one in particular broke through. _I wonder if I can live off of monster dust instead of blood…_

They were suddenly snapped out of their thoughts when they were shaken very violently. "HEY! SNAP OUT OF IT!" Undyne shouted in their face. They realised that they had started turning into their beast form and had been repeating "It's just the hunger talking" over and over.

They felt a sudden fear that Undyne would figure out what they were, and before they could stop themselves they rewound time back to just after Undyne had hit them on the back, but this time they stopped shifting their forms almost immediately.

They immediately chastised themselves for doing it after they caught Sans's shocked expression, before his face turned back to normal. He'd probably never let them out of his sight again. On the upside (if it could be called that), Undyne clearly didn't remember what had happened, which proved that so far only Sans and Frisk could.

"ALL RIGHT NERDS! Let's get going!" Undyne said before heading towards the hall from which she came. MK and I walked beside her, and waited by the edge of the room as she turned to say one last thing to Sans. "Also, good job Sans. I never thought I'd see the day where you weren't slacking off."

Sans slouched down again and addressed Undyne, though his eyes were still on Frisk. "well, it's a big moment, ya know? the last human. things'll be getting _interesting_ from here on out, i think."

Undyne nodded in agreement and turned back to the exit, leading Frisk and MK out without another word. They felt Sans's eyes on their back as they left, but they were more occupied with thinking about what Sans had said. Something about the _last_ human. Which implied that there were more around. Come to think of it, Papyrus had sort of mentioned other humans as well.

 _That isn't good. I came here so I didn't have to feed off of anyone. But I guess the whole plan has backfired completely,_ Frisk thought, _Although… it couldn't hurt to have a couple drinks from these humans… after all, I'm sure they'd be willing to let me feed on them if I tell them what happens when I don't feed…_

Frisk was once again snapped out of their thoughts as Undyne said something. "God, I was supposed to build a puzzle for this room... But I HATE puzzles. So I just put a huge pile of rocks upstream." They turned their head to look at Undyne judgementally. Papyrus must be rubbing off on them. "What? Don't judge me! My lack of creativity's making your life easier!"

After Frisk was done judging Undyne, they actually took a look round the room. There was a huge waterfall flowing down from the ceiling, with rocks falling down with the water. There was also another magic box. There was also a sort of calm patch in the middle of the waterfall that made a safe path through – except for the boulders, of course.

"Well? What're you waiting for?! Let's get across the deadly puzzle!" Undyne shouted.

"Sure thing, Undyne!" MK replied enthusiastically. Undyne walked along the path with MK following close behind her. Whenever any of the rocks seemed like they would hit her, she just put her arm out and stopped them. She must be quite strong.

When the two of them reached the other side, Undyne turned and called back to Frisk. "All right NERD! Try and beat THAT!"

Frisk raised their eyebrows and a smirk pulled at their lips. They swiftly zoomed from one end of the path to the other, and any rocks that were in their way shattered. They enjoyed the baffled shock on Undyne's face and the amazed look on MK's.

"DUDE! How'd you do that? C'mon, you gotta tell me!" MK shouted excitedly.

"Maybe another time." Frisk replied, suddenly aware of how Undyne was watching them warily.

 _Thinking back, that probably wasn't the best idea…_ _It seems not everyone is as stupid as Papyrus._ The "hunger thoughts" were starting be quite mean. _Papyrus isn't stupid. He's just innocent and naive._ Frisk corrected.

As Frisk came back to reality, they realised Undyne was saying something. "…You're like one of those AWESOME super humans that're in Alpyhs's human history books!" She didn't seem to be wary of Frisk anymore.

 _Hmph. Maybe they are all quite dumb._ Frisk ignored the thought. They instead replied to Undyne.

"Uhhh, yeah. Super humans are pretty rare though. So I'm not surprised you haven't seen any until now." Frisk lied. While they had been talking they had also been walking, and now they were in a shadowy corridor with some tall grass growing in the middle of it. There was a path higher up but there didn't seem to be any way to get there from where they were.

While they were moving through the grass, Undyne looked curiously at Frisk. "How much do you know about the humans down here?"

"Not much, only that there _are_ humans here. Which came as a nasty surprise." Frisk replied.

"Oh, do you not like humans? That's okay. Some of the other humans didn't like humans, but they warmed up pretty fast! Well, except one of them, but they haven't warmed up to _anyone_ , really. Other than Asriel. I don't like that one much. But they're good for sparring with!" Frisk listened intently to Undyne, wanting to learn more about the other humans down in the Underground.

"Yeah, Chara is always mean to everyone when the King and Queen aren't around." MK added to the conversation.

"You'd have probably seen at least one of the humans by now, if they weren't at a celebration. They're celebrating the anniversary of the day Chara fell here." Undyne told Frisk as they were leaving the dark hallway.

The three of them entered a room with a small pond that had a waterfall flowing down from it in the middle of the path. There were a bunch of plants to the side, and a sign on the wall. The sign read: "When four bridge seeds align in the water, they will sprout."

"ALL RIGHT NERDS!" Undyne yelled, startling Frisk. "WE NEED TO GET ACROSS THIS POND! GET TO IT!" She instructed, before jumping across to the other side. Frisk could probably do that as well, but they wanted to do the puzzle. Also MK probably wouldn't be able to make it.

They floated the seeds across the water in a line of four, which then sprouted into a bridge. MK and Frisk both walked across. Undyne looked baffled. "Wait, did you actually DO the puzzle?! You can't just jump across?! You can't do the jimpity jumpity joodle?! The limpity loppity leap?!"

Frisk just snickered and neglected to answer Undyne, as well as ignoring the voice in their head that was commenting on how Undyne seemed like she was insane. They all moved forwards into the next room. Standing around the room were a few types of monsters, only one of which Frisk recognised (which was a Moldsmal). One of the other monsters seemed to be a turtle with a tank on its back. The tank was half filled with water and there was a bird sitting in it. The other monster seemed to be some kind of merman, except with a sort of horse-like face and lots of abs. Most of the monsters left as they saw the trio, but not the Moldsmals. They just wobbled around.

The room itself was basically a bigger version of the previous room, with a river and a pond and a waterfall in it. The puzzle was also just a more complicated version of the previous one.

"Alphys helped measure out the mud tiles for this puzzle. It was a lot of work, but we got to make sand castles after. We're a good team. She's great at building them... And I'm great at wrecking them! There's barely even a trace of 'em now." Undyne commented. "Anyway! You do your thing!" She shouted, before jumping across the river.

Although the puzzle was a lot harder than the previous one, Frisk still managed to complete it. They all moved through a framed doorway into a room with sparkling stones all over the ceiling, and a bunch of echo flowers around it. There was also a telescope, and a sign that said "WISHING ROOM".

"Every day, people come here and wish to the stars... I won't let them down! I'll make everyone's wishes come true!" Undyne shouted enthusiastically.

"My wish has already come true, Undyne!" MK told her. "I wished that I'd be able to help you escort a human, and now I am!"

"AWESOME!" Undyne yelled. "Hey, do you have a wish?" She asked Frisk. They nodded slowly. "Add it to the pile, punk."

"…I wish I wasn't a vampire…" Frisk whispered, looking up at the star stones.

 _Why would you wish that? Being a vampire is great! You're super strong, super fast, hard to kill… And now that we know there are humans down here, we could live forever!_ The voice in their head informed them. They ignored it, turning back to Undyne and asking which way it was next.

"This way!" Undyne said, leading them past the telescope and up a corridor that seemed to be a dead end. "Now! I know what you're thinking! 'Undyne, this is a dead end!' BUT GUESS WHAT, NERDS?" She punched the wall and it caved in on itself, revealing another path. "IT'S A SUPER COOL SECRET PATH!"

 _It isn't too secret if you show us…_ They were now on a boardwalk amidst dark water. The water had a bunch of water sausages growing out of it. There were also many plaques on the walls that, when inspected, revealed sobering information about the war between humans and monsters, as well as facts about souls. There was also an unsettling picture of an indescribable beast.

At the end of the boardwalk there was a platform the size of one person. Undyne informed Frisk that if they stood on the platform, it'd take them across to another part of the walkway. Undyne also asked them to go ahead, as the platform would come back.

They stepped on the platform and were carried across the murky black water. It was quite concerning to be standing in the middle of the dark water, and they turned back to look at Undyne. They saw her putting her helmet back on with a gleam in her eyes, before they hit the other side of the boardwalk.

As the platform was heading back towards her, she shouted "ALL RIGHT, HUMAN! HERE'S THE DEAL! YOU HAVE TO RUN TO THE END OF THE LONG HALLWAY WITH ME CHASING YOU! GET GOING!"

Frisk quickly swirled around and started running, not bothering to look at their surroundings. As soon as they started, they heard whooshing sounds come from behind them. Before they could turn around and check what the noise was, spears flew past them on both sides. Not ordinary spears, of course. Glowing magic spears. They heard Undyne laughing manically behind them and the stomp of her boots as she ran to catch up with them.

Frisk picked up the pace.

Meanwhile, someone else was wondering why things kept repeating.


	5. Chapter 5

Frisk stood bent over with their hands on their knees as they tried to catch their breath after running all the way down the long hallway. They were also getting hungrier.

Undyne and Monster Kid stood behind them. All three of them were in a small room that had a table with some cheese stuck to it. There was a crystal growing on the cheese. The only other things in the room were an echo flower and a mouse hole. When Frisk had caught their breath, they moved into the next room.

The first thing Frisk noticed about the room was Sans. He was standing near the entrance to the room. On his left was a telescope and on his right was a magic box. To the right of the magic box was a framed doorway leading somewhere. The path continued on past the doorway, and there was a bridge across the now-glowing water. The water had some water sausages in it still, and also some lily pads now. They couldn't see much of what was across the bridge yet, but they could see that the ground was black with glowing grass, and that there were some white glowing trees rising out of the ground off the path.

Frisk nervously moved towards Sans. Undyne and MK were behind them.

"i'm thinking about getting into the telescope business." Sans told them. "it's normally 50000G to use this premium telescope… but… since i know you, you can use it for free. howzaboutit?"

He gestured towards the telescope, and Frisk decided that it'd be smart to get on his good side, so they should do what he asks. They nodded and leant down to look into the telescope.

Suddenly, their vision was filled with red. A shriek tore at their throat and they threw themselves back from the telescope, clutching a claw to their eye. It was red in more than one way. With their other bloodshot eye, they glared daggers at Sans. The voice in their head was chanting " _Blood, blood blood!_ " over and over. Once again they realised it wasn't just the voice in their head chanting; it was them as well.

Frisk closed their eyes, shut their mouth, lowered their hand and willed their body to go back to normal. After a while they felt their claws shrink and they opened their eyes to see Sans and Undyne talking while watching them.

"...more careful next time, Sans. You know that some of the humans have triggers." Undyne was saying.

"yeah, sorry. i just thought it'd be a funny prank, y'know?" Frisk could tell he was lying. He hadn't been trying to prank them – he had been _testing_ them.

"Hey, are you okay, dude?" MK was standing next to them. He looked worried.

They realised they were still shuddering, and tried to stop it before answering. "Y-yeah… I think so. I am now, at least."

They thought about telling him to leave, since they were basically a ticking time bomb. But before they could, the phone Papyrus had given them rang. They pulled it out of their pocket and answered the call.

"HELLO? IS THIS THE NEW HUMAN?" Papyrus's voice came out of the speaker.

"Yeah, this is. Hey Papyrus. How'd you get this number?" Frisk replied.

"IT WAS EASY! I JUST DIALED EVERY NUMBER SEQUENTIALLY UNTIL I GOT YOURS!" Frisk snorted in amusement. "ANYWAY, I WAS JUST CALLING TO ASK HOW YOU'RE GOING WITH UNDYNE!"

"It's going well. I'm sorry I haven't called, I've been caught up in doing puzzles – and trying to avoid magic spears that're being thrown at me." Frisk shot a look at Undyne.

"TYPICAL UNDYNE." Papyrus replied. He was calming them down quite well, although he didn't know it.

"Also, Sans is here right now with a telescope. He offered me a look but forgot to tell me that it was covered in red stuff." This time, the look was for Sans.

"YEAH, SANS NEVER TELLS ANYBODY ANYTHING! BUT IT'S NO SURPRISE HE HAS A TELESCOPE. SANS LOVES OUTER SPACEY SCI-FI STUFF. ANYWAY, HAVE FUN!" Papyrus hung up.

Sans was approaching Frisk. They tensed up. "hey, sorry 'bout all that 'blood' stuff. to make up for it, do you three wanna go get ice cream? my treat."

Frisk considered reminding him they couldn't eat anything, but decided it was worth having to taste ash if it made him spend more money, so they nodded. MK also looked forward to the ice cream. Undyne, however, didn't seem to want any.

"Ugh, ice cream?! Sugary... COLD... Talk about GROSS. Now this chilly pink stuff that Alphys makes me... THAT rules! I'll also drink it if it's heated up." Frisk wondered what Undyne could be talking about, but decided to drop it as they headed into the framed doorway. Inside there was a bunny monster man with an ice cream stall, an ancient plaque that'd been covered with a list of ice cream flavours, and a non-magical box.

The bunny man's ears, which were previously drooping, quickly rose, and he smiled. "Oooh, customers! I mean… *ahem* Nice cream! The frozen treat that warms your heart! When you buy a nice cream, you'll get a punch card! If you have three cards, you can redeem them for another free ice cream!" He explained.

"right, we'll have three nice cream's, please." Sans asked, handing over 75G.

"All right, sir! Your punch cards are in the box!" The bunny man handed one ice cream each to all of us except Undyne. Frisk brought their tounge up to the ice cream and licked it, fully expecting it to turn into ash.

Surprisingly, it didn't. When Frisk realised this, they enthusiastically licked more. They hadn't realised exactly how hungry they were. After a while of licking, Frisk eventually finished the actually ice cream. All that was left was the cone. Before they could think about it, Frisk put the cone in their mouth and bit down on it. It turned to ash.

"Fuck." They said, spitting out the ash. They realised that MK might've heard them and corrected themselves. "Uh, I mean frick."

They then thought about what had happened. The logical conclusion was that their fangs were the things turning food to ash. They moved their hand up to their mouth and fiddled with their fangs. They also managed to accidentally cut themselves. However, no blood came out of their wound. Strange. They suddenly snapped out of their thoughts and realised that Sans was holding out the three punch cards to them.

"you look like you're pretty hungry, why not have another?" Frisk realised that he had definitely remembered they couldn't eat anything, and with that realisation came another.

 _He's still testing me._ Frisk took the cards and headed back to the nice cream man. They held out the cards to him and he happily gave him a free ice cream. He seemed pretty pleased about how enthusiastic Frisk was to have another. They, in turn, were pretty enthusiastic about being able to eat again – sort of.

While Frisk enthusiastically ate the second ice cream, the four of them headed out of the ice cream cave. Sans stopped by his telescope while Undyne, Frisk and MK kept going. Undyne led the way down the bridge onto the black glowing grass. The three of them walked along the long, winding path amidst the white glowing water. Every once in a while there'd be an echo flower on the path. There were a couple of islands in the water as well, with some plants Frisk had seen and some they hadn't.

Eventually, they reached the end of the path. They headed past a plaque that told Frisk that the reason the humans started the war was because they feared a monster would take a human soul. In the room past the plaque, the grass wasn't glowing, but the water was back to normal. There was water all around the path.

As the three of them walked along the path, Frisk giving MK their ice cream cone, peachy-coloured tentacles rose out of the water around them. They walked further, and the tentacles retracted. Then, a giant onion with a face rose out of the water. It introduced itself as Onionsan.

They kept walking. As they were walking, the onion monster talked about how the other onions had moved to the aquarium in the city, and how there wasn't any space there for it, so it stayed in Waterfall. It also mentioned that the water level was lowering. It also said to Undyne how it was grateful that she had offered to help it move into the ocean if they got to the surface. At the end of the room, it bid them farewell.

Halfway through the next room, Frisk's soul was suddenly drawn into battle. The monster, Shyren, who had drawn it out was hiding in the corner. She didn't see the state of Frisk's soul, but Undyne did.

Frisk noticed that Shyren seemed to want to sing, but didn't know how. Her music attacks were weak. So they started humming a tune and Shyren followed it. She seemed much more comfortable singing along. Of course, this meant that the music attacks were faster and stronger, but Frisk didn't mind. They were glad to be helping out the shy monster.

They hummed some more. Monsters were drawn to the music. Suddenly, it was a concert! Sans was selling tickets made of toilet paper.

They hummed some more. The seats were sold out! Frisk felt like a rock star. The crowd tossed clothing. It was a storm of socks.

They hummed some more. But the constant attention… the tours… the groupies… it was all… Shyren thought about her future. Frisk and Shyren had come so far, but it was time. They both had their own adventures to embark on. They hum a farewell song, and Shyren left to pursue her dreams.

"That was nice of you." Undyne commented quietly. MK was spouting off about how cool Frisk was, which they definitely didn't mind. They glanced at Undyne, the fact that she was being quiet making them curious. She was looking at them warily again. Probably because of seeing their soul. Not much they could do about it, so they looked around the room instead. There was a hole into the abyss in the middle of the room, two waterfalls flowing from the ceiling, two exits (one north and the other east), and a sign that said "The northern room hides a great treasure."

Frisk moved into the northern room. It was small, and it only had a piano with symbols above it and a sign that said "A haunting song echoes down the corridor… Won't you play along? Only the first eight are fine."

"Yeah! YEAH! I made this puzzle! Really, it was just an excuse to put a piano here. I love FIGHTING THE IVORIES! Maybe I'll play you something sometime!" Undyne told Frisk enthusiastically. "I actually taught Shyren that tune of hers. She was a really talented pianist… for someone with no fingers."

After that they moved back down and headed east, reading more plaques about how humans can only take the soul of a species of monster called a "Boss Monster." They headed further down the path and entered a room with a statue that had rain falling on it. There was nothing to do in there, so they kept going.

The next room had another waterfall coming down from the ceiling, as well as a sign next to a bucket of umbrellas. The sign said "Take one." Undyne and Frisk both took an umbrella, but MK couldn't because he didn't have arms. So they both stood on either side of him to try and cover all of them completely.

The three of them moved onto the next room, where it was raining heavily and many waterfalls were coming down from the ceiling. There were quite a few puddles on the ground as well. While they were walking, MK was babbling about how Undyne was super cool and how she never lost. Undyne looked quite happy.

They took a turn and entered another room where it wasn't raining as heavily. There were a couple of water sausages growing in the black water off the path. A while down the path, there was an echo flower on an island. MK looked at it before reminiscing about when the king of the underground had helped with a flower project at school, and how he thought it'd be cool if Undyne came to school and beat up the teachers, before adding that she was too cool to beat up an innocent person.

They exited the raining area and came out into a massive cavern with glowing stones all over the ceiling. There was also a huge city/castle in the distance. Frisk stared at it in awe, and the others stopped to look as well.

"You like it? That's the capital. It's where the royal family lives, and where all the humans are celebrating right now." Undyne informed Frisk. "It's actually pretty busy over there, lots of problems with overpopulation. They're thinking about moving people to live in Snowdin, Waterfall and Hotland." She shuddered. "I hate hotland."

Eventually they stopped staring and moved on. They reached the end of the massive cavern, and entered another room. It was raining again in the room, and there was a bucket of umbrellas there as well. Frisk and Undyne both put their umbrellas away, and all three of them moved forward. In front of them was a high ledge. Frisk effortlessly jumped up onto it, but Undyne and MK stayed behind. Undyne was saying something to the kid about taking the other path, before she jumped up with Frisk. MK headed back after saying he'd see them later.

Undyne gestured for Frisk to go first. They moved forward into a dark room. The room got brighter as they moved towards some more plaques. These ones told of how the humans attacked the monsters without mercy. It made Frisk feel bad. When they turned back from reading, Undyne was gone. They decided to go forward onto the walkway that was ahead. They saw that there was a second walkway beneath the first one, and wondered what it was for.

Still wondering, they headed further along the platform. It was another one of the shadowy rooms. Just after they realised that, glowing circles appeared in front of them, and then behind them. After a second, magic spears erupted from the circles. When the spears disappeared, Frisk noticed Undyne (who had her helmet back on) standing on the lower walkway. Before they could ask her what was she was doing, more circles appeared on the floor. Frisk decided that it'd be a good idea to get going.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Hey, so I know there's been a lack of author notes up until now. That's cause I wrote all five of those first chapters before posting any. But don't worry, because as long as I stay inspired I should update pretty frequently.**_

 _ **Also, I'd like to say that I can't actually reply to guest reviews, but I appreciate all the support!**_

 _ **Thanks, and have fun reading this chapter.**_

After they had been chased by Undyne across the walkway, Frisk had reached a dead end. Soon after, Undyne had appeared behind them, laughing about how much fun she was having, before she accidentally broke the platform, sending Frisk into the abyss.

Frisk sat up on a bed of golden flowers. Déjà vu, much?

They rubbed their head, groaning. They weren't the only thing making noises. The chase had made them hungry again, and their stomach was rumbling. It wasn't like ice cream was very filling, anyway. They had to wonder how long they'd been passed out, though.

They also took a look around their surroundings. They were on a patch of flowers (as stated before) that was growing in the middle of a swampy area filled with water and pieces of platform. It seemed as if there was an endless amount of water flowing down from the waterfalls, but it was seemingly going somewhere as the water wasn't too deep. Further along there were also some big piles of trash.

 _Looks like you're in your element here._ The hunger told Frisk.

 _Oh, so now you're not just insulting my friends, you're insulting me? Lovely._ Frisk replied. They moved over to the piles of garbage, noticing that there were quite a few brands they recognised. They looked through the piles to see if there was anything interesting or useful in them.

 _What're you doing? It's just garbage. A trash heap._ As Frisk ignored the hunger and kept rooting through the heap, it seemed to get more annoyed.

 _Your persistent garbage habit shows no signs of payoff._ It told them. They finally moved on, having found nothing of interest. In the next room they saw a waterfall leading into the abyss, which proved that the water was going somewhere.

They moved further, into a part of the trash caves that headed north. On the way they saw things such as a broken bike, a beat up desktop computer, a cooler (which had two space food bars in it), and a DVD case for an anime with claw marks on the edges.

Oh, and there was a dummy like the one in the ruins, but it didn't seem too important. At least, it didn't before it got very angry and jumped in front of Frisk and started floating.

"Hahaha… It's just like you to ignore a dummy… But I am no mere dummy! I am a ghost that lives inside a dummy! My cousin used to live inside a dummy, too. Until… YOU CAME ALONG! When they saw you, they were instantly spooked out of their dummy! Horrible. Shocking! UNBELIEVEABLE! EVIL HUMAN! I'll scare your soul out of your body!" The dummy seemed completely mad, in both senses of the word. It turned red before drawing Frisk's soul. The room went dark, like it did in every battle.

The dummy didn't even seem to care about the soul's look. It summoned miniature dummies to shoot balls of magic cotton at Frisk's soul. They were easy to avoid, and some of them even hit the mad dummy. "OWWWW, you DUMMIES! Watch where you're aiming your magic attacks!" It paused and looked nervous. "…Hey! You! Forget I said anything about magic!"

Frisk tried talking to the dummy. It didn't seem much for conversation.

 _No one is happy with this._ The hunger informed them.

"I'll defeat you and take your soul!" The dummy shouted, before getting shot a couple more times by its own mini dummies. It started floating around – angrily, of course. "I'll use your soul to cross the barrier!"

 _Smells like a clothing store._ Frisk snorted at that, while trying to dodge more attacks.

"I'll stand in the window of a fancy store!" It said, glaring into a mirror and then turning to them with the same expression. "THEN EVERYTHING I WANT WILL BE MINE! …I guess that should avenge my cousin. What was their name again…?"

 _What a terrible person._

"Whatever. Whatever! WHATEVER!" As more cotton balls hit it, it got even more agitated. "HEY GUYS!" The mini dummies appeared on all sides. "Dummies. Dummies! DUMMIES! Remember how I said NOT to shoot at me? Well… FAILURES! YOU'RE FIRED! YOU'RE ALL BEING REPLACED!"

The mini dummies all looked shocked as the mad dummy started shaking itself around during the rant. It was getting cotton everywhere. The mini dummies all left and the mad one started laughing maniacally. "Now you'll see my true power: relying on people who aren't garbage!"

Mechanical whirrs filled the room. "DUMMY BOTS! MAGIC MISSLE!" The mad dummy yelled. Where the mini dummies usually sat were some mini dummies – that were also robots. They shot missiles at Frisk, which they easily dodged. However, the missiles swerved around and came back for their soul. It seemed they were homing missiles. None of the attacks hit the dummy that time.

Also, the mad dummy was doing an armless ska dance. "DUMMY BOTS! TRY AGAIN!" Once again, Frisk dodged the attacks, but this time they were able to aim a couple missiles at the mad dummy.

"DUMMY BOTS! You're awful?" As soon as the mad dummy made that observation, the dummy bots launched a much more complex attack. Frisk barely managed to dodge all of them, but they did get more to hit the mad dummy.

 _Mad dummy is bossing around its bullets._ The Hunger observed.

"DUMMY BOTS! FINAL ATTACK!" The final attack was so difficult, Frisk wasn't able to avoid all of the bullets. As more and more of the magic missiles hit them, they went mad with rage. Their claws grew on their hands and feet, they grew taller and wider, their eyes went bloodshot and their teeth all turned into fangs, with their two normal fangs turning almost sabre-tooth tiger length. They were about the size of Undyne by the end of the transformation into their beast mode.

The mad dummy was muttering to itself about how the bots were worse than the others, but Frisk didn't care. As soon as it was their turn, they'd rip it to shreds.

 _Haha, yes!_ The Hunger applauded Frisk's decision, as the dummy threw a knife at them. It looked sheepish for a second before saying it was out of knives.

It then started yelling and exploding outwards and flying everywhere, before threatening that Frisk would have to stay stuck fighting it forever. At this point, Frisk had slightly calmed down a bit. They had shrunk slightly as well, and their claws and fangs were turning back to normal. They realised the mad dummy was cackling loudly and exploding everywhere again.

Suddenly, it started getting hurt by what seemed to be... acid rain? The dummy looked just as confused as Frisk felt, before getting annoyed and leaving. In its place, Napstablook appeared. They realised that the acid rain must've been its tears.

"…sorry, i interrupted you, didn't i? as soon as i came over, your friend immediately left… oh no… you guys looked like you were having fun… oh no… i just wanted to say hi… oh no…."

The battle ended, and Frisk's soul retreated back into their chest. They was lucky it wasn't their turn, otherwise…

"well… i'm going to head home now… oh… um… feel free to 'come with' if you want… you didn't look so good back there… but no pressure… i understand if you're busy… it's fine… no worries… just thought i'd offer… since we're friends…" Napstablook floated off.

 _Ugh, how anticlimactic. Why are you even friends with a useless ghost, anyway? You can't even kill it!_ Frisk ignored The Hunger and followed Napstablook into a big room with some glowing water to the left of the entrance and some normal water in the middle.

Napstablook was floating above the normal water. "hey… my house is up here… in case you want to see… or in case… you don't…" They floated off to the middle northern room. Before following them, Frisk had a better look around the room. There were three paths to the north, one to the east and one to the west – as well as the path to the dump that Frisk had come through.

There was also a sign that read "North: Blook Acres, East: Hotland, ?: Temmie Village." They decided to put off exploring for the time being, as it would be rude to explore before at least visiting Napstablook. They moved over to the middle northern room, and saw two strangely shaped houses – one blue, one red.

Frisk tried opening the red one's door first, but it was locked, so they tried the blue one instead. It opened and they stepped inside. The house was rather small, and the wooden floorboards had holes in them in some places. As they walked in, Napstablook (who was wearing headphones now) turned around to face them in surprise.

"oh… you really came… sorry, i… wasn't expecting that. it's not much, but make yourself at home." Napstablook said. They looked around. There was a fridge, a TV, a desktop computer (on a desk, obviously), and a couple of CD players on the ground. That was it. There was literally nothing else in the house, unless you counted Frisk and Napstablook. Or maybe the window.

Frisk had a closer look at the computer. Its internet browser was opened to a music sharing forum. "uh, do you wanna… listen to some tunes… or something…" The ghost asked. Frisk turned on the CD labelled "Ghouliday Music".

"oh, this one… once you learn the lyrics it's hard not to sing along…" Napstablook then proceeded to "sing". "ooo ooo oooo ooo ooo oooo oo oo ooo oo ooo" They decided to switch on the one labelled "Spookwave."

"dang… that ambience… it's like my whole body is being spooked…" The musical ghost commented. Finally, Frisk tried the last CD, which was labelled "Spooktunes."

"oh… a classic spooktune… they don't make songs like this anymore…" Since Frisk was done with the CDs, they moved onto the TV. "oh… that's my tv… there's a show i like to watch on it… sometimes…" The channel changing knobs were melted onto the TV and it was impossible to move them. The sound dial was in perfect condition.

Frisk decided to inspect the last thing left in the house, the fridge. "oh… are you hungry… i can get you something to eat…" Napstablook moved over to the fridge before they could stop him. "this is a ghost sandwich… do you want to try it…"

"Uh, sure. I've never had ghost food before." They decided it was worth a shot. They attempted to bite into the sandwich. They phased right through it.

 _Well, that was worth your time, wasn't it?_

 _Sarcasm will get us nowhere, Hunger._

 _Maybe, but it makes me feel better. It's not like I can do anything else._

"oh… nevermind…" Napstablook commented. "after a great meal i like to lie on the ground like garbage… it's a family tradition… do you want… to join me..." The ghost offered. Frisk shrugged and nodded. "okay… follow my lead…"

They moved to the centre of the house and laid down on their backs. "here we go… you'll lie down as long as you don't move."

 _No shit, Sherlock._ Frisk wasn't sure which one of them had thought that.

"so… only moved around when you want to get up, i guess." Slowly, the music faded away, and an image of the cosmos appeared in Frisk's vision. They couldn't see the house, only the objects in the house, Napstablook and themselves, and the stars. They felt like the mysteries of the universe were unravelling for them.

 _Holy fuck, what was in that ghost sandwich?! We're tripping balls!_

 _Language, Hunger._

The two – three? – of them sat there for an immeasurable amount of time, before getting up. Slowly, the cosmos faded from view and the house returned.

"well, that was nice… thank you…" Frisk realised that the music had turned off, so they moved to turn their favourite on. It was, of course, Spookwave. As they left the house, they could still hear it echoing through the caverns.

 _Allow me to quote Napstablook – "Dang, that ambience!"_ The Hunger didn't respond. _Fine, be that way._ _But you can't talk to anyone else._

As Frisk made their way back to the main cavern, they realised they were hearing something other than the music. "…what the HECK is that music?" Frisk realised they recognised the monster who was talking as one of the turtle things.

There was also one of the seahorses with abs, which said: "I-I DUNNO, BUT IT'S SPOOKIN ME OUT." For some reason, it winked.

"…this is worse than Shyren." The turtle said, which was quite mean in Frisk's opinion. To both Napstablook and Shyren.

The seahorse replied, "No way, Shyren is way less scary." It winked again.

"…if you're so scared, why do you keep winking?" The mean turtle said. Frisk had been wondering the exact same thing.

"THESE ARE WINKS OF FEAR!" It winked once again.

"Forget it. This beat is too…" The turtle paused. "…filthy." After uttering the mean comment, it left the room.

The ab horse looked panicked. "Wosh! Wait! Don't leave me!" It winked _again_. "Is this creepy music my punishment for being creepy?" It was _still_ winking. "Please… stop… I'll never creep again!" With a final wink, it ran away crying in fear.

 _Well, that was certainly interesting…_ Frisk commented, trying and failing to hold back laughter.

 _For once, I agree with you._ The Hunger said.


	7. Chapter 7

While Frisk had been rooting through trash, fighting the mad dummy and hanging with Napstablook, Undyne had been rushing back to the other path down Waterfall. She had met Monster Kid on the way, and had told him what had happened. She then took MK to her house and told them to wait there.

She had a plan. She knew that Alphys would have been monitoring the new human, and that she would know where they were. As she headed down to the River Person from her house, she saw Napstablook going towards the dumps. She wondered what the ghost was doing, but didn't stop to ask.

She did, however, stop to ask Gerson if he had seen a new human around. After he told her he hadn't but that he'd look, she took a ride with the River Person over to Hotland – despite the fact that she hated it there. This was kind of an emergency. Besides, Alphys's lab would be cool.

While waiting for the boat to get to Hotland, she had been thinking about the human. _They were rather strange, even for a human… all of that chanting "blood", the nice cream cone turning to ash, and their superhuman powers… And Sans. Sans was watching them very closely. I wonder if it has something to do with the secret job Alphys says Sans has…_

One time, when Undyne had been hanging with Alphys, the latter had accidentally said something about Sans working with her on something special. Undyne hadn't believed her at the time, and had said that she didn't think Sans would be able to work on anything, special or not. But earlier, he had been very much awake, and very much watching the human…

Undyne realised that she had reached Hotland while she had been thinking, and rushed up to the lab, trying to spend as little time as possible in the heat.

"ALPHYS!" She yelled as she burst in. She was met by two small people (who weren't as shocked as she had expected them to be), who turned from the monitor from which they had been watching something. One was Alphys, obviously, but the other was a human around Alphys's size.

Undyne recognised the human as the one with the purple soul of perseverance, Betty. They were wearing their usual cloudy classes and scribbling notes into their torn notebook. Betty had lived and worked with Alphys for a while now, but Undyne hadn't seen much of her. Anyway, back to the problem.

"H-hello, Undyne. We know why you're here. A-at least, probably." Alphys.

"Good! Can you tell me where the new human is?" Undyne requested.

The two scientist nerds shot a nervous look at each other, before Betty said "U-uh, actually… There's something you should see before that…"

Alphys moved back to the monitor and seemed to be rewinding the footage. They seemed to be viewing the garbage dump.

"Of course, the dump! I should've checked there!" Undyne said, frustrated. "Also, Betty. How come you aren't at the celebration?"

"O-oh, I… well, I wanted to spend a little more time watching this new human. They were acting quite… strange." The timid human replied. "Also… it's not like Chara really wants to have anyone around…"

"I-it's probably good that you did stay here… take a look at this, Undyne." Alphys moved so that they could all see the screen.

The screen was showing the new human moving slowly through the dump, occasionally stopping to look through the garbage. They looked a lot worse than the last time Undyne had seen them; their eyes were rather bloodshot and they overall looked rather… ragged? It was hard for her to describe. As the three of them watched, Undyne's training dummy (Asgore knows what it was doing in the dump in the first place) attacked the human. It seemed quite mad. The human was doing quite well avoiding all of its attacks, however. It seemed they were quite good at that.

Suddenly, the human was hit multiple times by some homing missiles. They visibly tensed up, and let out a very much inhuman growl. To Undyne's horror, they then proceeded to grow into the most terrifying beast she had ever seen.

*Slightly later and also back to Frisk…*

After Frisk had stopped laughing about the Winks of Fear™, they decided to call Papyrus in hopes that he knew where Undyne was.

 _Hey, maybe you shouldn't do that. Why not just… explore on our own? It'll be fun; no one will know where we are._ The Hunger advised.

 _You have just provided me with a perfect reason NOT to do that. You should probably hone your persuasion skills._ Frisk pulled out their phone and called Papyrus before The Hunger could answer.

"HELLO?" Papyrus yelled.

"Hi, Papyrus!" Frisk greeted him.

"OH! HUMAN! HOW NICE TO HEAR FROM YOU! WHERE ARE YOU AT THE MOMENT?" Papyrus asked.

"I'm just in the room past the trash area."

"HEY! THAT MEANS YOU'RE NEAR UNDYNE'S HOUSE! THAT'S TO THE LEFT-UPWARDS. LUPWARDS. ALL THE OTHER DIRECTIONS GO TO THE WRONG HOUSE. NORTH: GHOST HOUSE. EAST: TURTLE HOUSE. SOUTH: TRASH HOUSE. WEST: BIRD HOUSE."

Frisk laughed a bit. It seemed they'd never tire of Papyrus's antics. "Thanks, Papyrus. You saved me a bunch of exploring."

"NO PROBLEM, HUMAN FRIEND! CALL ME IF YOU NEED ANYTHING ELSE."

"I will." Papyrus hung up just as they realised they hadn't asked if he knew where Undyne was. But that didn't really matter anymore, seeing as they had learnt where her house was. They moved lupwards towards her house, entering the side cave that it was within.

"Yo! Dude, where've you been? Undyne's looking all over for you!" Monster Kid rushed up to Frisk.

 _Ugh, it's them._

 _Don't be mean._

"Oh! Hey MK! I didn't expect to see you here. I was actually looking for Undyne. Do you know where she went?" Frisk asked, neglecting to answer the question.

"Uhh, I think she went to Hotland for something… But she told me to stay here!"

"Well, I'm sure she won't mind us meeting her halfway, right?"

 _Yes, lure them away and kill them when we're alone!_

 _Quiet, you._

"Ummm… okay!"

 _Don't they know not to trust strangers? Especially ones who have previously had a mental breakdown and started chanting "blood" in front of them._

 _That was you, not me._

 _Ha! I wasn't even real until you hit your head in the dumps. I was just a figment of your imagination that you blamed all of your shortcomings on. But now that I am real you'll have many, many more problems._

"A-all right, let's… get going then." Frisk stuttered, trying to ignore The Hunger.

 _You know I'm right._ The Hunger continued, as Frisk and MK headed out and to the east. _All of that stuff before? That was all you. YOU were the one who had a mental breakdown. YOU were the one who was wondering what monster dust tasted like._

 _YOU were the one who killed Papyrus._

Frisk inhaled sharply and choked back a sob. Fortunately, MK didn't seem to notice. Luckily for them, The Hunger seemed to drop the subject. It seemed to be contended by just taunting them, for now. They decided to focus on where they were. They had just exited the room, and were now outside what looked to be a shop. There were also two paths they could take.

"Which path should we take?" MK said, hesitating and looking between both paths.

"I think you should take the path into here, and buy some stuff! Wahahaha!" An old croaky voice told the two of them. It came from the shop. Frisk looked at MK and shrugged, before walking inside.

In the shop (which was actually a small cave, with a shop set up inside) they saw an old archaeologist-looking turtle. He said "Hey there! I've got some neat junk for sale, if you want anything!"

"Actually, we'd like to know if Undyne came through here." Frisk requested politely.

"Undyne? Yeah, she just came through here asking about someone who looked just like you." The old man replied.

"Yes, that would be because she's looking for me. Do you know which way she went?"

"I think she went over to Hotland. She took a ride with the River Person. If you're lucky, the River Person will be just south of here. They can take you to Hotland. Otherwise, you can take the other path. It'll take a little longer and there are some puzzles, but you should be fine." They thanked the old turtle, and he told them to take care before they moved on along the southern path. All that was there was an empty river.

"I guess we'll have to go the long way." MK nodded in agreement before the duo turned around and headed further east. The first room they entered was a long one, filled with echo flowers and waterfalls. There were also a couple of plaques describing how the barrier was made and how to break it.

The room following that one was very dark, but the glowing grass lit up when they hit the magic mushrooms. As they were leaving the room, they encountered a rather strange creature.

 _What's wrong with that thing's face?_ The strange creature was intensely vibrating. Plus, its face was floating off. Frisk tried to say hello to it.

"hOI! i'm TEMMIE!" It said, before disappearing into thin air.

"Well. That was interesting." Frisk commented. MK agreed. They moved onwards.

The next room was a puzzle room. As in the whole room was a puzzle. There were lanterns that seemed to light up the room, without which MK couldn't see. Of course, Frisk had night vision, so they didn't bother doing the puzzle, they just told MK where to stand and eventually they got to the end of the room.

The room after the puzzle room was also quite dark and seemed like a dead end, but Frisk could see a northern path that was hidden in the darkness. They moved forward and entered a slightly flooded hall, with a bunch of echo flowers. Frisk tuned out the echo flowers, like usual. At the end of the hall was a singular plaque that described a prophecy.

In the next room was what seemed to be a not-very-safe bridge. When they had almost reached the end of the bridge, MK stopped. He seemed to be contemplating something.

"Yo… so, you know that stuff that happened earlier with the telescope… and the ice cream cone?" Frisk stilled. "What was that all about? I've never seen a human do those weird things… but, uh, I've never really talked to a human either, just looked at them."

Before Frisk could answer, there came loud stomping sounds from the area they'd just left. Undyne rushed around the corner and froze at the start of the bridge. She was wearing her helmet.

"Kid!" She yelled. "Get away from that thing!"

MK looked around confusedly. "What thing, Undyne?"

"The human thing! It's not safe to be around them!" Frisk's heart dropped. How much did Undyne know about them?

 _Well, well. It seems like she's finally got some sense into that tiny head of hers._ The Hunger was itching for a fight, Frisk could tell.

MK looked confused and then slightly scared. They hesitantly headed towards Undyne, stopping in the middle of the bridge. "Why isn't it safe Undyne?"

"It… it's not properly human! I saw it turn into a horrible beast, now come here!" MK started to go towards Undyne, but tripped and was hanging off the edge of the bridge.

"Yo, w-w-wait! Help! I tripped!" Undyne moved towards the kid quickly, but nowhere near as quick as Frisk moved. They pulled up the kid and moved back slightly. Undyne took another step towards the them. MK looked between the two of them and moved to stand between them.

"Y… y… yo… dude…" MK addressed Undyne. "If… If y-you wanna hurt my friend… You're gonna have to get through me, first."

 _What a foolish child._

Frisk couldn't see Undyne's face, but they imagined it looked as shocked as they felt. Undyne took a step back, and then a few more, before she turned around and left.

"She's gone… Yo, you really saved my skin." MK thanked them. "…man, I should go home… I bet my parents are worried sick about me!" Frisk was still frozen on the spot. MK took a couple steps back, before turning around and saying "Later, dude!" before running off the same way Undyne went.

After staying still for a couple seconds more, Frisk went in the opposite direction off the bridge. They entered a room with another, smaller, bridge, which they crossed, before entering the next room along. This room was very much different to the previous two. It had a huge spiky mountain-rock that took up the whole room. The path went through the middle of it. As Frisk moved forward to follow the path, they looked up and noticed Undyne standing at the top of the mountain. Although it didn't seem important, they also noted some mechanical infrastructures rising out of the ground far behind her.

"Seven. That is the number of humans that are currently living with the Royal Family. The King and Queen are trying to teach them all magic so that they can break the barrier. Six. That is the number of humans currently able to use magic." Undyne turned to face them. "But you? You aren't really a human. Your soul may well be useless, for all we know. Which is why it's a good thing we don't need you. That is why I'll kill you, here and now, so you no longer pose a threat to everyone's hopes and dreams."

Frisk took in a breath to reply, but before they could Undyne continued. "First, however, I shall tell you the tragic tale of our people. It all started long ago…" Undyne paused. "…No, you know what? SCREW IT! WHY SHOULD I TELL YOU THAT STORY WHEN YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE!? NGAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Undyne dramatically threw of her helmet, her eye gleaming in the light. "YOU! You're standing in the way of everyone's hopes and dreams! Alphys's anime made me think humans were cool… with their giant robots and flowery swordswomen."

 _Pretty sure those aren't too accurate._

"BUT YOU? You're just a coward!"

 _Rude._

"Hiding behind that kid just so you could run away from me! And let's not forget your wimpy goody-two-shoes shtick! 'Oooh, I'm making such a difference by hugging random strangers!'"

 _She has a point there, you know._

"You know what would be more valuable to everyone? IF YOU WERE DEAD!"

 _She's really into this whole "killing" us stuff, isn't she?_

"That's right, beast! Your continued existence is a crime! Your life is all that stands between us and freedom! Right now, I can feel everyone's hearts pounding together! Everyone's been waiting their whole lives for this moment! But we're not nervous at all. When everyone puts their hearts together, they can't lose!"

 _That's not true._

"Now, beast! Let's end this, right here, right now. I'll show you how determined monsters can be! Step forward when you're ready! Fuhuhuhu!"

 _Oh, this will be_ _ **fun.**_

 ** _Yeah, I left you on a cliffhanger. Sorry not sorry._**


	8. Chapter 8

**_More plot in this one, but it's also mostly Undyne fight. Hope you guys enjoy anyway._**

Undyne watched with well-concealed nervousness as the human's – no, the _beast's_ mouth split into a wicked grin at her challenge. Its eyes were a deep red. It started to step forward, but pulled its leg back and put a hand on its head, looking worried. Its eyes seemed to have changed in shade as it looked back up at her.

"What's stopping me from just running straight past you?" It called. Undyne realised she hadn't planned for that to happen, and quickly said the first thing that came to mind.

"Only cowards run away from fights!" She yelled. The beast seemed to be slightly… amused?

"Didn't you just say that you consider me a coward anyway?" It was definitely amused, Undyne could tell from its tone. That made her angry.

"Enough banter! Will you or will you not fight me?!" It shrugged.

"Well, I guess it'd be rude to decline your polite invitation." It took the step forward, still with that amused smile on its face.

"That's it, then…! No more running away! HERE I COME!" Undyne leapt at the beast from her perch, holding a magic spear pointed towards its face, and blocking the entrance to the cave that led to Hotland. There was no way she'd let this thing get near Alphys!

She drew its soul out into battle, looking at its crack distastefully before sending an arc of green magic towards it. The beast looked down at their soul, noticing it had turned green.

"En guarde!" Undyne said, and the battle really began.

*Suddenly, Frisk's POV!*

 _I can't move! I can't move! I can't-_ Frisk was panicking.

 _Yes, I'm aware of that. You don't need to repeat it._ The Hunger replied. _Anyway, it's your turn. Do something already!_

Suddenly, Frisk was tossed a non-magical spear by Undyne. They held it confusedly, before looking back at Undyne.

 _Hurry up! Fight back or spare, I don't care! You can even check her, I'm getting bored._ The Hunger asked.

 _Check… her?_

 _Ugh, that's right. You have no idea what you're doing when it comes to soul fights._ Frisk would've felt insulted if they weren't so busy being confused. _Check as in stats. I bet you don't even know your own stats, do you? I'll explain more when we're done here, but for now all you need to know is Undyne's attack and defence. Shall I check her for you?_

 _Uhh… okay._ The Hunger checked Undyne and read out her stats to Frisk.

 _UNDYNE – ATK 50 DEF 20. The heroine that NEVER gives up._ It paused. _Oh, and by the way… I'm pretty sure that for monsters, HP is determined by ATK times DEF. So Undyne's HP is 1000. I imagine she's the toughest monster we've met so far. Now get back to the battle, your turn's over!_

Frisk snapped back to reality in time to block several slow-moving magic spear-bullets with the spear they'd been given. They didn't really need to try, but they didn't want to be hit, either.

"As long as you're green, you CAN'T ESCAPE!" Undyne seemed pretty pleased about that fact. "Unless you learn to face danger head on… You won't last a SECOND against ME!"

 _Undyne towers threateningly._ The Hunger informed Frisk. For some reason, they suddenly felt as if annoying Undyne would be a good idea. _You tell Undyne her attacks are too easy. The bullets get faster. Good job, I'm proud of you._

"Haha! Then how about THIS?!" The bullets were slightly faster, and came not just from in front of Frisk, but from the sides as well.

 _Smells like sushi._ Once again, Frisk told Undyne her attacks were too easy. _The bullets get faster again._

"For years, we've dreamed of a happy ending…" The attacks were getting slightly fast, and were now coming from behind Frisk as well.

 _Undyne flips her spear impatiently._ Frisk continued to challenge Undyne. _The bullets keep getting faster._

"And now, sunlight is just within our reach!" Now, the bullets were coming from all directions and at a moderately fast pace.

 _The bullets are still getting faster._ The Hunger said as Frisk challenged Undyne once again. It paused. _Hey, you know I'm all for a good fight, but you should maybe stop challenging her… I mean, I live in this body too, you know? And it hurts when you get hit._

"I won't let you snatch it away from us!" Undyne continued her monologue, and Frisk blocked the bullets that were getting increasingly faster. "NGAHHH! Enough warming up!"

The next attack wasn't too hard, but at the end Undyne removed them from green mode and sent a proper spear towards them. It almost connected.

 _Oh dear. It appears she was just warming up._ The Hunger sounded smug. _It seems you're in trouble now. I guess you should start listening to your friends when they warn you, huh?_

But Frisk had a plan. As it was their turn, and they had been removed from green mode, they decided it'd be a good time to leave. Undyne looked shocked for a second as Frisk rushed past them and through the cave they'd been blocking. They were going by too fast to look at the scenery. They were almost at the end of the cave before they were hit by another wave of green magic and were forced to stop.

"You won't get away from me this time!" Undyne sounded more annoyed as she walked back around Frisk to block the way again. The battle restarted.

 _She won't make the same mistake again, you know. And now she's annoyed._ The Hunger warned Frisk. _Oh, yeah. Back to narrating._ _Undyne flashes a menacing smile._

Frisk just ignored The Hunger and continued to challenge Undyne. _You're just an accident waiting to happen, aren't you? Actually, more like an accident that's already happened._

"Honestly, I'm just doing you a favour…" Undyne said as Frisk blocked more bullets. "The Royal Family is powerful like you won't believe!"

 _Undyne points heroically towards the sky. Also, you're an idiot._ Frisk had challenged Undyne again, and had barely managed to block all of the attacks as they came at them at high speeds from all directions.

 _You tell Undyne, once again, that her attacks are too easy…_ The Hunger sighs in resignation. _The bullets are getting unfairly fast._

"Killing you now is an act of mercy!" Frisk was scraped once in the side, but was able to hold back on their transformation. They were starting to look panicked as they realised exactly how fast the attacks were going.

 _This is your own fault, you know. Oh, and… Undyne holds her fist in front of her and shakes her head._

"So STOP being so damn resilient!" Undyne had started to look quite agitated. This time, the bullets hadn't been as hard as the time before, and Frisk had managed to avoid them all again. Also, contrary to The Hunger's earlier statement, Undyne DID make the same mistake again, turning Frisk's soul red again and trying another spear attack.

 _Huh. I think I overestimated her intelligence._ The Hunger said as Frisk rushed away again while Undyne was busy suplexing a huge boulder, just because she could.

Suddenly, when Frisk was halfway through a room with a big moving sign that said "Welcome to Hotland", their phone rang. They paused to take it out of their pocket and answer the call.

 _What are you even doing, you crazy child?!_

It was Papyrus on the phone, obviously. "HEY! WHAT'S UP?!"

 _Undyne is literally RIGHT BEHIND YOU._

"I WAS JUST THINKING… YOU, ME, AND UNDYNE SHOULD ALL HANG OUT SOMETIME! I THINK YOU WOULD MAKE GREAT PALS! LET'S MEET UP AT HER HOUSE LATER!" He hung up, and as soon as Frisk had put the phone in their pocket their soul was green again.

Undyne looked furious. "You've escaped from me for the LAST time!"

Frisk didn't challenge her again, so the attack was slower. However, Undyne sent in a backwards bullet spear in her attack, which tricked Frisk and hit them in the back. They managed to not go completely beastly, although they did grow slightly and let out a growl. It seemed they were getting the hang of controlling it.

 _Undyne thinks of her friends and pounds the ground with her fists._

"Alphys told me humans were determined…" Another backwards spear was thrown in with the normal ones, but Frisk blocked that one too. "I see now what she meant by that!"

"But I'm determined, too!" A couple of fast normal attacks and some normal speed backwards attacks. All blocked. "Determined to end this RIGHT NOW!"

"NGAHHH! DIE ALREADY, YOU LITTLE BRAT!" Undyne once again freed Frisk from green mode. They were starting to think that it had a time restraint. She sent many normal sized spears at Frisk, but since they were red again they dodged them all easily. Then they ran again.

They entered Hotland, and were shocked still for a second when they saw Sans sleeping in his sentry station. They started moving again when they heard Undyne's stomps coming closer.

 _You know, she must be pretty fast to be keeping up with you. If you were a normal human, you would've been dead AGES ago._

Luckily for Frisk, as they moved along another precarious bridge (this one over lava) Undyne paused to look at Sans as well, before hastening to catch up with Frisk. However, once they reached the end of the bridge, she was starting to slow down. They turned back to look at her.

"Armour… so… hot…" She muttered. "But I can't… Give up…"

She collapsed and Frisk moved to the conveniently-placed water cooler. They grabbed a cup of water and went back to Undyne. They poured the water on her head, and after a few seconds she slowly got back up again. She looked down at Frisk for a long while, before turning around and walking back to Waterfall.

After a few seconds of silence The Hunger said, _I was right. That was fun._

*Suddenly, another shift of perspective!*

"So you're telling us that you _think_ this new human… isn't really a human? What proof do you have for that?" They said, raising one eyebrow.

"Chara, don't be rude. If Betty says she and Alphys think something's wrong with the new human, we should look into it further." Toriel scolded Chara. Betty was very clearly put out by their statement.

"Yes, of course mother. Sorry, sister." They clearly weren't sorry, but Toriel didn't seem to see that. She always saw the best in her children, adopted or not. "But, they could've just been accidentally looking at a humanoid monster. Or maybe just… watching some anime and thinking it was the camera footage."

"Yes, well, as I said, we shall look into it further. Now, I think Mettaton's show should be on soon. The others are all by the TV already. Shall we join them?" Betty cheered up when she heard the idea and headed towards the living room, but Chara scoffed.

"Mother, you know I hate Mettaton. He's so overly dramatic and _weird._ " Toriel looked at Chara unamusedly. They conceded defeat. "Yes, alright. Fine. Family time and all that."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better my child, we might get to see the new human on this quiz show. Betty did say they were nearing Hotland." That got Chara moving to the couch in front of the TV faster, but not for a good reason. They had been waiting since they fell here for a bad human to fall. So far the monsters had been lucky, getting kind humans down in the Underground, ones that were accepted by the monsters and tolerable to Chara.

But they knew that it was only a matter of time until a human who was more… human in their nature fell down. They had been practicing their weapon and magic skills for that time. And if what Betty had said was true, they would finally be able to use them.

To be honest, they were rather excited, despite the fact that they were worrying over the repetitions.

They had never seen anything at least remotely similar to themselves down here.

 _ **It seems The Hunger's asshole-y personality is leaking over to Frisk... and it also seems it's taking Frisk's recommendation to get better at persuasion to heart. (Does it even have a heart? Who knows. I certainly don't.)**_

 _ **Also Chara hates everyone. What a surprise.**_


	9. Chapter 9

Frisk looked at the lab that loomed in front of them. It was rather intimidating, actually. They decided to go down south ( _Phrasing!_ The Hunger laughed) before heading inside. South was actually the only other path they could take that wouldn't lead them straight back to Waterfall, with west being the way they came and north being blocked by some guards (who weren't too smart.) East being the lab, of course. They recalled their strange one-sided conversation with the guards.

"Sorry… Undyne, like, told us there was totally a dangerous beast in the area. So, like, us Royal Guards are blocking off the elevators for now." One of the guards had told Frisk as they approached them. "Ngah! Even if the elevators aren't working anyway, we'll do our best, Ms. Undyne!"

When Frisk had paused to stare at the guard in amusement, he had continued his monologue. "Like, NO WAY you're getting by us. But, between you and me… I think you could go through that creepy lab over there." The guard pointed to the lab. "Between, you, me and my bro here, I mean. I tell him ALL my secrets."

As Frisk was reminiscing, they realised they had arrived at an area not too different from the area that was south of the old turtle's shop. The river seemed to continue on from there to where they were currently. Speaking of the river, there was a suspicious hooded person sitting on a two-person boat in the river. They moved to speak to them.

"Tra la la. I am the riverman." When the riverperson had started talking, they had turned their head towards Frisk. They couldn't see anything inside the hood. "Or am I the riverwoman…? It doesn't really matter. I love to ride in my boat. Would you like to join me?" Frisk politely declined. "Then perhaps another time. Or perhaps not. It doesn't really matter."

The riverperson turned away again and Frisk headed back up to Hotland. They stood in front of the entrance to the lab, nervous. It _was_ a very creepy lab, after all.

As they took a step closer, the lab door automatically opened. They stepped inside.

*Woah, what?! Another perspective switch?! You better get used to these*

Chara's whole family, including them, sat squashed together on _two_ couches. They couldn't believe that their family had grown so much they couldn't even fit on two couches without being squashed. Their house was bigger than ever, as well. They'd had it extended to fit all of the children Toriel had adopted.

But that was beside the point. The TV was on and it showed a screen that was counting down to Mettaton's live quiz show. It didn't have long left to go now.

When the timer ended, the screen suddenly went black and everyone very clearly heard Mettaton yelling "OHHHH YES!" Chara hadn't even seen him yet and they were already fed up with him. His voice had a way of doing that, for them at least.

MTT continued. "WELCOME BEAUTIES…" Suddenly a spot light appeared over Mettaton and what seemed to be a big hole in the wall of Alphys and Betty's lab. They heard Betty groaning about how they'd have to fix it. "…TO TODAY'S QUIZ SHOW!"

The black room got a little less dark as Mettaton's gameshow music started and a huge sign saying "Game Show" appeared along with two rainbow disco balls, which illuminated what was definitely the lab. Alphys was also there, looking distraught.

The main thing Chara was focusing on, though, was the new human. They looked extremely similar to Chara, but were wearing a pink and blue striped shirt with two stripes, compared to Chara's lime and cream one with only one stripe. Their trousers were blue to Chara's red, and their hair was a darker shade of brown to Chara's. Their boots were the same brown colour. They looked quite confused and slightly surprised. Mettaton probably hadn't given any warning before presumably bursting through the wall.

What shocked Chara the most, though, was the fact that their eyes were red like theirs. It was almost like having suddenly met an identical twin, except they were slightly different.

They started listening to the show again. "…CAN ALREADY TELL IT'S GOING TO BE A GREAT SHOW! EVERYONE GIVE A BIG HAND FOR OUR WONDERFUL CONTESTANT!" Mettaton clapped and a rain of confetti fell over the human.

"NEVER PLAYED BEFORE, GORGEOUS?" MTT asked as the human tried to get the confetti out of their hair. "NO PROBLEM! IT'S SIMPLE! THERE'S ONLY ONE RULE. ANSWER CORRECTLY…" The music stopped for dramatic affect. Chara rolled their eyes. "OR YOU DIE!"

Chara was suddenly very interested in this new version of the quiz show that Mettaton was doing. They wholeheartedly agreed that it was a good new rule, although it was probably only for dramatic effect, like most things MTT did. While they had been thinking, Mettaton had drawn the new human's soul out and started his battle music (or at least, one version of it. God knows how many versions he had.) Everyone immediately noticed something wrong with the soul, which was that it had a crack running straight through it.

 _That doesn't look healthy._ Chara also noticed that the soul was red, like theirs. That meant that the human had a determined soul like them. They wondered if there were any other ways they were similar, and listened as everyone else voiced their concerns over the soul (with Betty blabbing to everyone what she had told Chara.)

Meanwhile, the show was continuing. The human had checked MTT. Obviously, no one else could see his stats other than them, but Chara didn't need to because they already knew them.

 _METTATON – ATK 30 DEF 255. His metal body renders him invulnerable to attack._ They ran over the stats in their head.

Because the human had wasted their turn checking, it was MTT's turn. Obviously, this was a quiz show battle and so Mettaton used quiz questions instead of attacks. "LET'S START WITH AN EASY ONE!"

 _You'd have thought Betty and Alphys would have managed to stop him from shouting all the time by now,_ Chara thought as the first question appeared along with a 30 second timer. The timer was going down faster than in seconds.

 _ **What's the prize for answering correctly?**_

 _ **A: Money B: Mercy C: New car D: More questions**_

The human's hand hovered on B, which Chara knew was wrong, before suddenly pressing down on D. "RIGHT! SOUNDS LIKE YOU GET IT! HERE'S YOUR TERRIFIC PRIZE!"

 _ **What's the king's full name?**_

 _ **A: Lord Fluffybuns B: Fuzzy Pushover C: Asgore Dreemurr D: Dr Friendship**_

The human immediately pressed on C while Chara and their family teased Dad over the other options. The quiz show continued. Chara had stopped listening to Mettaton's comments on the human's choices already.

"ENOUGH ABOUT OTHERS. LET'S TALK ABOUT ME!" That was a very MTT statement.

 _ **What are robots made of?**_

 _ **A: Hopes & Dreams B: Metal & Magic C: Snips & Snails D: Sugar & Spice**_

The human paused to read all of the options before pressing down on B. Chara noticed that every time it was their turn, they just selected Spare. They sneered and thought that maybe they weren't so similar after all. Although it wasn't as if anyone could hurt Mettaton.

"HERE'S ANOTHER EASY ONE FOR YOU!"

 _ **Two trains, Train A, and Train B, simultaneously depart Station A and Station B. Station A, and Station B are 252.5 miles apart from each other. Train A is moving at 124.7mph towards Station B, and Train B is moving at 253.5mph towards Station A. If both trains departed at 10:00 AM and it is now 10:08, how much longer until both trains pass each other?**_

 **A: 31.054 minutes B: 16.232 minutes C: 32.049 minutes D: 32.058 minutes**

"That's not easy!" Asriel cried in indignation. It was just like MTT to lie blatantly like that.

The human looked extremely confused and also slightly annoyed. They moved their hand over all of the answers without picking one. Chara realised they were just doing eeny-meeny-miny-moe. They suddenly pressed down on A and their soul got zapped while Mettaton yelled that they were wrong.

Chara noticed that the human seemed to… grow a bit when they got zapped? Chara leaned forward. Their hands had also seemed to have changed into claws without them noticing. Just as soon as it had happened, they were back to normal. They weren't sure if anyone else had noticed, so they shot a look at Betty. She nodded in confirmation that Chara wasn't hallucination. They leaned back in deep thought as the next question was asked.

"DON'T 'COUNT' ON YOUR VICTORY…" Mettaton revealed a jar of flies.

 _ **How many flies are in this jar?**_

 _ **A: 54 B:**_

The rest of the questions didn't even have time to load as the human instantly slammed their hand on A. They were correct. "WONDERFUL! IM ASTOUNDED, FOLKS!"

Chara was impressed as well.

"LET'S PLAY MEMORY GAME."

 _ **What monster is this?**_

 _ **A: Froggit B: Whimsun C: Moldsmal D: Mettaton**_

Knowing Mettaton, since the question seemed so easy it was probably rigged. They wouldn't be surprised if the answer was actually MTT himself. That would be just like him. The human seemed to agree, and they pressed on D. (Hey, that rhymed!) They were both right.

"I'M SO FLATTERED THAT YOU REMEMBERED! BUT CAN YOU GET THIS ONE?"

 _ **Would you smooch a ghost?**_

All the options were "heck yeah" and the timer was going up. The human grinned and pressed down on one of the buttons enthusiastically. Chara's family burst out laughing. "GREAT ANSWER! I LOVE IT! HERE'S A SIMPLE ONE."

 _ **How many letters in the name Mettaton?**_

 _ **A: 11 B: 6 C: 8 D: 10**_

The number of Ns increased and eventually went straight off the screen with the numbers in the answers increasing accordingly. However, the human managed to get it right almost straight away again by pressing C. They weren't sure if it was luck or skill this time.

"OF COURSE THAT WAS EASY FOR YOU! TIME TO BREAK OUT THE BIG GUNS!"

 _ **In the dating simulation video game "Mew Mew Kissy Cutie" what is Mew Mew's favourite food?**_

Alphys suddenly burst out. "OH! OH! I KNOW THIS ONE! IT'S SNAIL ICE CREAM! IN THE FOURTH CHAPTER EVERYONE GOES TO THE BEACH! AND SHE BUYS ICE CREAM FOR ALL OF HER FRIENDS! BUT IT'S SNAIL FLAVOR AND SHE'S THE ONLY ONE WHO WANTS IT! IT'S ONE OF MY FAVORITE PARTS OF THE GAME BECAUSE IT'S ACTUALLY A VERY POWERFUL message about friendship and..."

She broke off her rambling and looked sheepish. "ALPHYS, ALPHYS, ALPHYS. YOU AREN'T HELPING OUR CONTESTANT, ARE YOU? OOOOOH! YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME. I'LL ASK A QUESTION… YOU'LL BE SURE TO KNOW THE ANSWER TO!"

 **Who does Alphys have a crush on?**

 **A: Undyne B: Sans C: The new human D: Don't know**

"That's not in the script!" Betty sounded flustered, but not as panicked as Alphys looked. The human smirked before pressing down on C.

"...SERIOUSLY? MY MY... HOW CONCEITED CAN YOU GET...?" Ironic, coming from him. "I LOVE IT! AND WHILE YOU ARE COMPLETELY WRONG, YOU DESERVE SOME CREDIT. I'VE SEEN HER WATCH YOU ON HER COMPUTER SCREEN. SMILING WHEN YOU SUCCEED. SHRIEKING WHEN YOU FAIL. AND ALWAYS, ALWAYS, WHISPERING... 'NO! WRONG! YOU HAVE TO GO THAT WAY!' IN ITS OWN WAY, IS THIS NOT LOVE?" Chara snorted in amusement. They were enjoying this quiz show much, much more than usual.

"WELL, WELL, WELL. WITH DR. ALPHYS HELPING YOU… THE SHOW HAS NO DRAMATIC TENSION!"

 _And we all know that you can't live without that, can you?_ Chara thought.

"WE CAN'T GO ON LIKE THIS! BUT. BUT! THIS WAS JUST THE PILOT EPISODE! NEXT UP, MORE DRAMA! MORE ROMANCE! MORE BLOODSHED! UNTIL NEXT TIME DARLINGS…!" Mettaton retracted his arms and wheel and used a rocket to fly away just before the show ended and the screen went back to the waiting screen.

For the first time in their life, Chara was looking forward to the next MTT show.

 _ **Who here knows that vampires traditionally have arithmomonia? It means that they have an obsessive urge to count things.**_


	10. Chapter 10

_**First, I'm very sorry that I've been unable to respond to most reviews; I've been pretty busy, but I should be able to start replying soon. After I've had a rest.**_

 _ **Second, halfway through writing this chapter I remembered that vampires aren't supposed to show up in videos, mirrors, sensors, etc. Whoops. My bad. Not much I can do to change that now, so I'll just say that in this story that doesn't happen.**_

 _Well, that was interesting._ The Hunger commented as Alphys left after having upgraded Frisk's phone. Frisk snorted.

 _That's an understatement. Who knew I'm so good at counting and that I can do it in that amount of time?_

 _Certainly not me. You're getting better at controlling yourself as well. Good job._

 _Thanks. Anyway, shall we have a look around this place? It seems pretty interesting so far._

 _You're asking as if I have a choice._

Frisk moved around the lab, inspecting items of interest, gaining amusing comments and also a cup of instant noodles. When they'd finished looking around the bottom floor of the lab, they moved past the door that was labelled "Approved personnel only" which Alphys had gone into, and over to a conveyor belt that headed upstairs. "Upstairs" being a loose term since there were no stairs and the only way up was on the conveyor belt.

When they got to the second floor they had a look around, taking in the things labelled "Human History" and also a machine that was oozing pink goop, as well as a worn down work table with many strange tools and blueprints on it and an anime poster above it. At the end of the room were two special beds that fold into convenient, easy-to-describe boxes when not in use, a closet filled mostly with lab coats and a couple dresses, and a poster of Mettaton that had "Thank you for making my dreams come true" written on it.

When they'd finished inspecting things on the top floor they took another conveyor belt down to the ground floor and went out the other side of the lab.

 _It seems we're finally making progress._ The Hunger sassed. Frisk didn't bother replying because as soon as they'd left the lab a notification went off on their newly-upgraded phone. They pulled it out of their pocket and read the notification. It was from the site that Alphys had signed them up to, Undernet.

ALPHYS updated status.

* just spoke to the new human and upgraded their phone

 _I hope she isn't one of those people who updates their status all the time, because we're going to have to put up with SO many notifications if she is._ The Hunger told Frisk as they put their phone back and walked further along the path, while taking in the scenery. They appeared to be on a cliff path surrounded by lava and glowing machinery. They were snapped out of their scenery-ing when their phone went off again.

ALPHYS updated status.

* now i gotta call them up and guide them =^.^=

 _Oh god, she is._

 _Stop groaning, we can deal with it._

Frisk headed along the path and ended up near some more conveyors. There was steam coming out of contraptions to the side of the path, and some of the floor seemed to be made of pipes. Halfway across the conveyor belt, they bumped into a monster and were dragged into the battle. The conveyors stopped moving.

 _Interesting._ Frisk thought before looking at the monster they'd bumped into. It seemed to be a mini volcano with legs and a face. They checked it.

 _VULKIN – ATK 25 DEF 0. Mistakenly believes its lava can heal people._

 _Aww, it's so cute!_ Frisk gushed as they went up to hug it, after avoiding some lightning attacks.

 _Hey, I don't think-_ The Hunger stopped its thought as Frisk hugged the Vulkin. _You give Vulkin a hug. It warms your heart… and your whole body! Ouch! Your DEF dropped!_

"Ahh… so… LOVEY!" The Vulkin said as it was hugged and its eyes turned heart-shaped. Nevertheless, it still shot fireballs at Frisk before letting them spare it.

Suddenly, the conveyor belt started up again. Although not so suddenly that Frisk didn't have time to grab 40G that the Vulkin left behind. They ended up at the other side of the belt, and continued on the path.

ALPHYS updated status.

* gonna call them in a minute! =^.^=

There were more conveyors, going in strange directions. It was almost hard to not get thrown off into the lava below. They soon made it to the end of them, though, and headed further along the path. There were lots of pipes in the ground, but those receded as they went further.

ALPHYS updated status.

* I HATE USING THE PHONE I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS LMAO ^.^

In front of Frisk were what seemed to be contraptions billowing steam with glowing arrows on them. They stepped on one, and it threw them across a chasm that had lava at the bottom. They landed perfectly but decided to just jump the next time they needed to use one of them. Suddenly…!

 _Tsunderplane gets in the way! Not on purpose or anything._ Frisk snickered a bit before checking the plane. _TSUNDERPLANE – ATK 25 DEF 26. Seems mean, but does it secretly like you?_

The plane used mini planes to drop bombs that exploded into pillars of fire when they hit the ground to attack Frisk. They were actually pretty hard to dodge.

 _Tsunderplane gives you a condescending barrel roll._ Frisk approached the plane. _You get close to Tsunderplane. But not too close._

"Eeeeh? H-human…?" The plane looked flustered, and there were green areas around the mini planes that were now dive bombing Frisk. After hitting enough of the green areas, the Tsunderplane shook its nose dismissively at them. It had a massive blush – which in itself was a great feat, since planes can't blush. Obviously, Frisk flirted with it.

 _You tell Tsunderplane it has an impressive wingspan._

"H-huh?! Y-you sicko!" The plane said, looking away shyly.

 _I can second that._ The Hunger said as Frisk spared the plane and got 60G for their efforts. They jumped a couple steam gaps before stopping because of another status update.

ALPHYS updated status.

* omg i've had my claw over the last digit for 5 minutes.

* omg i'm just gonna do it

* i'm just gonna call!

 _Please do._ Frisk hopped another gap before their phone started to ring. They picked up the call but whoever had been calling had already hung up. They headed further onward before getting to another piped area, but this one had what seemed to be lasers.

Their phone rang again. They picked it up. "Uhh! H-hi, so, the blue lasers… Uhh! I mean, Alphys here! Hi! The blue lasers won't hurt you if you don't move! O-orange ones, um… Y-you have to be moving, and they… Um, they won't, um… Move through those ones!"

"You don't say." Frisk replied, sounding amused. Alphys hung up with a hurried bye.

ALPHYS updated status.

* OMG I DID IT!

* claws haven't shook like that since undyne called me to ask about the weather… v.v

Frisk moved through the orange lasers and, just as they got to the moving blue laser, they got another update.

ALPHYS updated status.

* WAIT THERE'S NO WEATHER DOWN HERE WHY DID SHE CALL ME

Frisk snickered to themselves while waiting for the blue laser to pass, before moving on and repeating the process a couple more times. Eventually they reached a switch, which they pressed. The lasers were deactivated. They moved on further. The ground was starting to become more of a mix between actual, rocky, ground and pipes.

ALPHYS updated status.

* Oh My God i Forgot to Tell THem Where To Go

ALPHYS posted a picture.

* CUte PIC OF ME RIGHT NOW ^.^

It was a photo of a garbage can with several pink, glittery filters over it. Frisk headed further along the path.

"Ugh, not more steam jumpy things!" They groaned out loud. Before they could hop over the gaps, they were called again.

"A-A-Alphys here! Th… the northern door will stay locked until you… S-solve the puzzles on the right and left! I... I think you sh-should g-g-go to the right first!" Alphys hung up.

 _Well then, if she says so._ Frisk thought, hopping right.

To the right of the steam jumpy things was a building that was purple and red with an upside down soul hanging above the doorway. It seemed like they should go inside. There were also some people lounging around outside, but they ignored them. Inside they found what seemed to be a puzzle, and a bouncing cat head in the corner who was muttering about its co-workers not helping to solve the puzzle.

Frisk read the instructions to the puzzle and easily finished it, before heading back the way they came and then to the left. When they got to the left area, there seemed to be an impassable blue laser. They got a call.

"Alphys! Here! Th-that blue laser seems totally impassable! B-b-but! As the Royal Scientist, I h-have some tricks up my sleeve! I'll h-hack into th-the Hotland laser database and take it out!" The laser deactivated and Frisk walked past, ignoring two teens in school uniform who were loitering around.

Frisk entered a building that looked vastly the same as the other puzzle building and found a more complex shooting puzzle. It took them a little more time to complete it, but they managed in the end and left the area again.

They jumped across north and watched as a set of big, intimidating, runed doors grinded open before walking through them. Then they groaned in agony. There was a row of steam jumpy thingies, and it was the only way they could go. They braced themselves and stepped on the first one, being launched across one by one and spinning all over the place before landing at the end on a tiled area, traumatised but otherwise fine.

They took a moment to look at the floor. It was completely different from the rest of Hotland so far. It seemed more… kitchen-y. Their suspicions were confirmed when they entered a dark room, which they could see perfectly in. It was definitely a kitchen.

They took a couple steps forward before getting a call from Alphys. She explained that she was about to turn on the lights, and when she did she uttered an "Oh no" before Mettaton rose from the ground behind the kitchen surface, exclaiming "OHHHH YES!" He was wearing a chef's hat.

Frisk couldn't help but grin as Mettaton started rambling and some nice music started. "WELCOME, BEAUTIES, TO THE UNDERGROUND'S PREMIER COOKING SHOW!" A sparkling sign appeared that said "Cooking With A Killer Robot" in cursive.

"PRE-HEAT YOUR OVENS, BECAUSE WE'VE GOT A VERY SPECIAL RECIPIE FOR YOU TODAY! WE'RE GOING TO BE MAKING… A CAKE! MY LOVELY ASSISTANT HERE WILL GATHER THE INGREDIENTS. EVERYONE GIVE THEM A BIG HAND!" Mettaton clapped his hands and confetti rained from the ceiling. It got stuck in Frisk's hair again. "WE'LL NEED SUGAR, MILK, AND EGGS. GO FOR IT, SWEETHEART!"

Frisk moved to the counter behind them that held the sugar, milk and eggs, grabbed all three, and brought them back to the kitchen surface. "PERFECT! GREAT JOB, BEAUTIFUL! WE'VE GOT ALL THE INGREDIENTS WE NEED TO BAKE THE CAKE! MILK… SUGAR… EGGS…" Mettaton paused for dramatic effect. "…OH MY! WAIT A MAGNIFICENT MOMENT! HOW COULD I FORGET! WE'RE MISSING THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT!"

The music stopped. Frisk looked straight at Mettaton, instead of grinning at the camera. He had pulled out a chainsaw. "A HUMAN SOUL!"

Mettaton moved at just the right dramatic pace towards Frisk with the chainsaw revving, before getting interrupted by his phone ringing. "HELLO…? I'M KIND OF IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING HERE."

"W-wait a second!" It seemed the call was connected to some kind of microphone or something, as they could hear Alphys talking. "Couldn't you make a… Couldn't you use a… Couldn't you make a substitution in the recipie?!"

"…A SUBSTITIUTION? YOU MEAN, USE A DIFFERENT, NON-HUMAN INGREDIENT? …WHY?" Mettaton asked.

"Uhhh, what if someone's…" Alphys paused to think. "…Vegan?"

"…VEGAN."

"Uhh well I mean-" The gameshow music came on.

"THAT'S A BRILLIANT IDEA, ALPHYS! ACTUALLY, I HAPPEN TO HAVE AN OPTION RIGHT HERE! MTT-BRAND-ALWAYS-CONVENIENT HUMAN-SOUL-FLAVOUR-SUBSTITUTE! A CAN OF WHICH… IS JUST OVER ON THAT COUNTER!" The camera panned over to a counter near the edge of the set that held a can of the substitute. The camera panned back to Mettaton and Frisk. "WELL, DARLING? WHY DON'T YOU GO GET IT?"

As Frisk walked over to the counter, the camera following them, the counter suddenly shot up into the air and out of their reach. Mettaton walked over to them. Well, wheeled.

"BY THE WAY, OUR SHOW RUNS ON A STRICT SCHEDULE. IF YOU CAN'T GET THAT CAN IN ONE MINUTE… WE'LL JUST HAVE TO GET BACK TO THE ORIGINAL PLAN! SO… BETTER START CLIMBING, BEAUTIFUL!" Mettaton flew off as Frisk got a call.

"Oh no! There's not enough time to climb up! …F-f-fortunately, I might have a plan! When I was upgrading your phone, I added a few… features. You see that huge button that says… 'JETPACK'? Watch this!" The phone, shockingly, turned into a jetpack.

 _What a plot twist._

"There! You should have just enough fuel to reach the top! Now, get up there!" Alphys said as Frisk launched into the sky. Along the way to the top, Mettaton threw eggs, flour and sugar at them to try and slow them down. Most of the food missed, but Frisk imagined they'd be trying to get that flour out of their hair for a long time.

When they reached the top, Mettaton started talking again. "MY MY. IT SEEMS YOU'VE BESTED ME. BUT ONLY BECAUSE YOU HAD THE HELP OF THE BRILLIANT DOCTOR ALPHYS! OH, I LOATHE TO THINK OF WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU WITHOUT HER! WELL, TOODLES!"

Mettaton flew off and Frisk sat down on the pillar/counter as it retracted itself back down. Alphys rang them at the bottom. "Wow! We… we did it! We… we really did it! Great job out there, team!"

 _No problem, glad I could help._ The Hunger replied. Obviously, Alphys couldn't hear it.

"W-well, uh, anyway, let's keep heading forward!"

And so Frisk did.

Chara leaned back at the end of the live episode of "Cooking With A Killer Robot." They had enjoyed it much more than usual. They couldn't wait until the next time they'd see the new human… Uh, the next time Mettaton's show was on, they mean.

 _ **Someone's a little tsundere... and it's not just the Tsunderplane.**_


	11. Chapter 11

_**"Woah, what? You wrote this in about three hours?" Hell yeah I did.**_

 _ **On the downside, it's the shortest chapter so far - but only by around 200 words, so don't worry. (All of the chapters before this have been between 2000 and 3000 words, while this is only around 1800.**_

Frisk gawped at the massive, intimidating, mechanical structure that was floating in a lake of lava.

 _Well, that's impressive._ The Hunger thought to Frisk. Before they could reply, they got a call. That would probably happen a lot through Hotland, they thought.

"S-see that building in the distance?" Alphys said. "That's the CORE. The source of all power for the Underground. It converts geothermal energy to magical electricity, by… Uhh, anyway, that's where we're going to go. In the CORE is an elevator directly to the castle. And from there… Well, I don't really know. You're kind of the first type of… whatever you are… that's fallen down here."

Alphys hung up. Frisk kept moving along the path, shooting glances at the CORE until it was no longer in their view. They reached what seemed to be a big, metal, glowing tube with "R1" above what looked to be an elevator door. They pressed a button that was to the right of the door and the door opened. They stepped in.

There was a sign on the wall opposite to the door. It had many buttons, but only three were lit up: Left Floor 1, Right Floor 1 (which had a glowing green light next to it, which they guessed meant that was where they were), and Right Floor 2. They hit Right Floor 2 and the elevator moved. In no time at all the doors opened and they stepped out.

The path continued to the west of the elevator. They moved along it and found Sans sitting in his sentry station, eyeing them. There was also a Vulkin that had a hot dog down its crater and a bird with another hot dog in its claws. As they moved past the bird, it said "Hey… isn't it weird that there's SNOW on that guy's roof?"

Sure enough, when they looked there was snow on Sans's station roof. The bird continued. "…guess he's just too lazy to clean it off." Frisk looked at it critically. The bird didn't notice. They moved over to talk to Sans, feeling nervous.

"hey buddy, what's up? wanna buy a hot dog? it's only 30G." Sans asked. Frisk declined. They still couldn't eat anything that required biting. "yeah, you've gotta save your money for college and spiders."

"What? Spiders?" Frisk asked, confused. Sans offered no explanation, just stared at them with his permanent grin. They quickly got nervous under his unblinking gaze (skeletons don't need to blink, obviously) and they moved further along the path.

ALPHYS posted a picture.

* dinner with the girlfriend ;)

It was a picture of a catgirl figurine next to a bowl of instant noodles, like the ones Frisk had taken. After about two more steps, their phone went off again. This time, however, it wasn't Alphys.

CoolSkeleton95 posted a picture.

* ARE WE POSTING HOT "PICS?"

* HERE IS ME AND MY COOL FRIEND

It was a picture of Papyrus flexing in front of a mirror. He was wearing sunglasses, and giant muscular biceps were pasted onto his arm. The biceps were also wearing sunglasses. Frisk let out a laugh before stumbling into another battle. As they put their phone away, they checked the monster, which seemed to be a coil of rope with shoes and a head. Its head was on fire and it was grinning hugely.

 _PYROPE – ATK 29 DEF 14. This mischievous monster is never warm enough._

"Is it cold in here?" The Pyrope asked, while throwing bombs at Frisk. The bombs had a large blast radius. Frisk thought of what they could do, before cranking up the thermostat. (Don't ask me where it came from.)

 _You crank up the thermostat. Pyrope begins to get excited._ It was also getting harder to see as the waves of heat were actually visible.

"Hot! HOT! Hotter! HOTTER!" Pyrope yelled.

 _Pyrope wants more heat._ The Hunger informed Frisk, as if they couldn't tell already. They cranked up the thermostat. _It's super hot! Pyrope looks satisfied._

Frisk ran through some orange fire attacks before sparing the Pyrope and gaining 45G. Luckily, the room cooled back down (if you could call Hotland cool in the first place). It had been sweltering. They took a second to fan their face, and set off again.

ALPHYS updated status.

* LOL, CoolSkeleton95!

* …that's a joke, right?

CoolSkeleton95 updated status.

* THE ONLY JOKE HERE, IS HOW STRONG MY MUSCLES ARE.

 _This is actually pretty amusing._ The Hunger said as Frisk took a detour south, before turning back around when they realised it was a dead end. Halfway back to the main path, they got another notification.

* NAPSTABLOOK22 has sent you a friend request.

* Accept the request?

Frisk clicked accept, but it seemed to have already rejected itself. They moved forward again and reached an area with multiple buttons and a couple of conveyor belts. They got a call from Alphys.

"H… hi…! It's Dr. Alphys." _Mhmm, I wasn't aware of that._ "This p-puzzle is kinda… um… timing-based. Y-you see those switches over there? Y-you'll have to press all of them within 3 seconds. I'll t-try to help you with the rhythm!"

Frisk moved over to the conveyor and stepped on it, pressing the first two buttons when they went past without a problem. However, on the third one…

"OK! Now press the third one!" Alphys interrupted their focus. "…..H-h-hey! Looks like you! Only needed to press! Two of them!" Alphys said, and then the forcefield turned off. They moved forward again.

ALPHYS updated status.

* that's the last time i try to help with a puzzle lmao

 _Of course she'd leave right when we're about to do a steam jumpy puzzle. Great._ Frisk thought. The entirety of the next puzzle was made of switches and steam jumpies. Frisk looked to the conveyor belt that was supposed to bring them back safely if they fell.

They slowly forced their way forward along the conveyor belt, going just slightly faster than it was pushing them back. By the end of the belt they were exhausted, and they collapsed while trying to regain their breath.

 _You know, you could've just done the puzzle instead of… whatever that was._ The Hunger informed them. They ignored it, choosing instead to pick up their phone, which was ringing once again.

"Oh… my god? You just… what did… how…?" Alphys hung up after that. Frisk took a while to recover before getting up again and heading further west. They entered an area with a microwave and paused to read the multiple status updates that Alphys had put up.

ALPHYS updated status.

* WHat

* what even is that human?!

Only that one concerned them. The rest…

ALPHYS updated status.

* OMG? ppl think Mew Mew 2 is better than Mew Mew 1?

* LOLLLLL that's a joke right…

ALPHYS updated status.

* omg… DON'T THEY GET IT RUINS Mew Mew's ENTIRE CHARACTER ARC

ALPHYS updated status.

* My Mew Mew 2 Review:

* Mew Mew Kissie Cutie 2 Is Neither Kissy Nor Cutie.

* Its Trash. 0 stars

* BETTY_THE_PERSERVERING liked this post.

Frisk was so busy laughing at the updates that they didn't notice the two slightly dumb guards from earlier coming up behind them, in a room filled with wireframes and pipes pumping out steam.

"Hey! You! Stop!" They swirled around sharply. "We've, like, received an anonymous tip about a beast disguised as a human, wearing a striped shirt. They told us they were wondering around Hotland right now… I know, sounds scary, huh? Well, just stay chill. We'll bring you someplace safe, OK?"

Frisk, who had been tensed up ready for a fight, relaxed and let out a breath as the two guards started leading them back the way they'd came. Suddenly, the guard who had been talking stopped and looked at the other, silent one as he whispered something to him.

"…Huh? What is it, bro? The shirt they're wearing? …like, what about it?" The guard looked at Frisk, who had tensed up again. He turned back to the other guard. "Bro… Are you thinkin… what I'm thinkin? Bummer. This is, like… Mega embarrassing. We, like, actually totally have to kill you and stuff."

Before they could run, they were drawn into battle. They looked between the two guards before checking the loud one. _RG 01 – ATK 30 DEF 20. Royal Guard member with shining, polished armour._

Both of the guards said "Team attack!" and shot a bunch of stars at Frisk. They dodged them all. _02 watches your movements._

Frisk checked the silent guard. _RG 02 – ATK 30 DEF 20. Royal Guard member with stuffy armour._

"Like, perish and stuff." The loud guard said as they shot more stars at Frisk. They had an idea and moved up to clean 02's armour. _You clean RG 02's armour. Its cooling dirt begins to wash away._

"…getting… warmer…" 02 said, and a glowing green armour symbol appeared and started floating around the star attacks. Frisk ran into it a bunch of times, and… "…can't… take it… armour… too… HOT!"

02 threw off his chestplate and revealed a sweaty torso. "…much better." To be honest, it kind of turned Frisk on.

 _Now is really not the time for that. Please, please get on with the battle. It's your turn._ The Hunger begged them. _RG 01 looks bothered by something._

Indeed he did. He looked incredibly flustered, and Frisk couldn't even see his face. They had an amazingly mischievous idea. _You tell 01 to be honest with his feelings. What are you doing?_

"I… I…" 01 stuttered, his attacks going all over the place.

"…what?" 02 asked. Frisk was grinning.

"D-dude… I can't… I can't take this anymore! Not like this! Like, 02! I like… I like, LIKE you, bro! The way you fight… The way you talk… I love doing team attacks with you. I love standing here with you, bouncing and waving our weapons in sync…" _Phrasing lol._ "02… I, like, want to stay like this forever…"

"…" 02 was silent.

"Uh… I mean, uh… Psyche! Gotcha, bro! Haha!" 01 was panicking.

"…01."

"Y-yeah, bro?"

"…do you want to… get some ice cream… after this?" 01 looked relieved.

"Sure, dude! Haha!" _01 and 02 are looking at each other happily._

Frisk spared them and earned 100G. They walked off back to the elevator together, all happy n stuff. Frisk continued along their path.

ALPHYS updated status.

* oopswait how's the human doing

They moved north along the path before it turned east.

ALPHYS updated status.

* Top 10 Shows That Make You Forget To Do Your Frickin Job

They kept walking. They were in another black area. Oh dear.

 _More like "OH YESSS" amiright?_ The Hunger laughed as Alphys turned on the lights to reveal Mettaton on a news set.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Because the last chapter was short, here comes the longest chapter yet - at exactly 3666 words long! What a great number.**_

 _ **(I wasn't actually planning for this to be longer than normal but I couldn't find a good ending bit without making it really short.)**_

 _ **Anyway, hope you enjoy, as always!**_

Chara was watching another one of Mettaton's live shows, this time a news show. They'd been teased by their family that they were developing a celebrity crush on Mettaton, but they knew that wasn't true. Clearly, they'd developed a crush on the new human…

…

NO WAIT, THAT'S WRONG! They'd not developed a crush on anyone! Yeah! They're a demon, and demons don't have crushes! Anyway, back to the show!

Where were we? Oh yeah. It was a news show. Mettaton was sitting at a desk in a suit and holding some papers that were probably his script. There was a fake skyline background and a box that showed the human. Oh boy, they were pretty… (waIT NO) and they'd managed to clean the flour and confetti out of their hair. Mostly. They couldn't see where the human was at the moment, since the set covered most of the area. Anyway, Mettaton was talking, and news music was playing.

"OHHHHH YESSS! GOOD EVENING, BEAUTIES AND GENTLEBEAUTIES! THIS IS METTATON, REPORTING LIVE FROM MTT NEWS! AN INTERESTING SITUATION HAS ARISEN IN EASTERN HOTLAND! FORTUNATELY, OUR CORRESPONDENT IS OUT THERE, REPORTING LIVE! BRAVE CORRESPONDENT! PLEASE FIND SOMETHING NEWSWORTHY TO REPORT!" The human looked at the camera and shrugged, before heading around and looking at a variety of things in the area before sighting a dog and squealing in an amazingly cute way that made Chara melt (WHY I AM I STILL THINKING THESE THINGS) and running over to pet it.

"WHAT A SENSATIONAL OPPURTUNITY FOR A STORY! I CAN SEE THE HEADLINE NOW: 'A DOG EXISTS SOMEWHERE.' FRANKLY, I'M BLOWN AWAY. DO YOU WANT TO REPORT THIS ONE?" The human glanced at the camera amusedly (with a small grin still on their face as they pet the dog) and nodded. "ATTENTION, VIEWERS! OUR CORRESPONDENT HAS FOUND… A DOG! (CUE AUDIENCE AWWS) THAT'S RIGHT, FOLKS! IT'S THE FEEL-GOOD STORY OF THE YEAR! LOOK AT ITS LITTLE EARS, TINY PAWS, FLUFFY TAIL…" Mettaton paused and the music stopped. "WAIT A SECOND. THAT'S NOT A TAIL! THAT'S… A FUSE!"

The dog's tail lit on fire and the human scrambled back away from it, looking partially nervous and partially annoyed because they were unable to pet the dog more. They were cute when they were scared. (WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME)

"THAT'S RIGHT… THAT DOG… IS A BOMB! BUT DON'T PANIC! YOU HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN THE REST OF THE ROOM YET!" The set fell away and Mettaton was left hovering in his suit as the room was revealed, with multiple things that had bombs strapped to them surrounding the now worried-looking human. "OH MY! IT SEEMS EVERYTHING IN THIS AREA IS ACTUALLY A BOMB! THAT PRESENT'S A BOMB! THAT BASKETBALL'S A BOMB! EVEN MY WORDS ARE…!"

The words in Mettaton's speech box fell through the fourth wall, effectively breaking it, and exploded by the human's feet, who jumped back and hissed like a cat. Which was ironic because they seemed to love dogs.

"BRAVE CORRESPONDENT… IF YOU DON'T DEFUSE ALL OF THE BOMBS…" The camera panned to show a huge bomb to the north of the human. It had a timer on it. "THIS BIG BOMB WILL BLOW YOU TO SMITHEREENS IN TWO MINUTES! THEN YOU WON'T BE REPORTING 'LIVE' ANY LONGER! HOW TERRIBLE! HOW DISTURBING! GOOD LUCK, DARLING!"

Some dramatic music started, and the human rushed around the area so fast that the camera had trouble keeping track of them, defusing the bombs. Once they'd finished they headed back to the centre at a more leisurely pace, with Mettaton's normal game show music playing.

"WELL DONE DARLING!" MTT congratulated the human. "YOU'VE DEACTIVATED ALL OF THE BOMBS! IF YOU DIDN'T DEACTIVATE THEM, THE BIG BOMB WOULD'VE EXPLODED IN TWO MINUTES. NOW IT WON'T EXPLODE IN TWO MINUTES!"

The music cut out again. "INSTEAD IT'LL EXPLODE IN TWO SECONDS! GOODBYE, DARLING!" Mettaton floated around for a couple seconds, laughing maniacally until he realised nothing was happening.

"AH. IT SEEMS THE BOMB ISN'T GOING OFF."

Alphys's voice was suddenly heard. "That's b-because! While you were monologuing… I…! I f… fix… Um… I ch-change…"

"OH NO. YOU DEACTIVATED THE BOMB WITH YOUR HACKING SKILLS." Mettaton cut in.

"Yeah! That's what I did!" Alphys agreed, sounding sheepish.

"CURSES! IT SEEMS I'VE BEEN FOILED AGAIN! CURSE YOU, HUMAN! CURSE YOU, DR. ALPHYS, FOR HELPING SO MUCH! BUT I DON'T CURSE MY WONDERFUL VIEWERS FOR TUNING IN! UNTIL NEXT TIME, DARLING!" Just as the screen went black and Mettaton flew away, Chara saw the human exhale a large breath. It seemed acting was taking its toll on them.

They sat watching the screen as it switched to the "Stay Tuned" thing. They sat there for a while before one of their adopted brothers, Chuck (who was the only one of their siblings who was older than them), came in asking about what they'd like for dinner and then asking why they were still watching the television. They ignored the second question and walked into the kitchen while answering the first.

* * *

After the show had ended, Alphys had called Frisk and said that she was getting more confident with guiding them, which had made them feel good. They explored the room a bit before heading onwards, and finding another area with a view of the CORE. They got another call from Alphys in there.

"Um… I noticed you've been kind of quiet… Are you w-worried about meeting the Royals?" Frisk realised that they hadn't talked much, and also realised that they hadn't thought about what they'd do when they encountered the other humans.

Would they be able to control themselves? What if they couldn't? Why were they still going forward? Why not go back and find somewhere abandoned to starve?

So many questions that they had no good answer to. They tuned back in to Alphys's reassurances. "W-well, don't worry, okay? Th-they're really nice people (except for Chara)… I'm sure you can talk to them (except for Chara) a-and… J-just hang around until they break the barrier! S-so, no worrying, OK? J-just forget about it and smile."

"…Thanks, Alphys. I needed that." They hung up, mind still whirling. They could go back and find a place where they wouldn't hurt anyone… but if they left now, they'd hurt their friends… Oh, what a dilemma they'd gotten themselves into! The Hunger offered no input, but they could feel its presence in their thoughts.

They had been slowly moving forward, and they reached another one of the elevator ports. This one was labelled L2; Left Floor 2, probably. They were right. Their fingers hovered over the now-lit up Left Floor 3 button, but then went into their pocket. They dialled up Papyrus.

"Hey, Paps?" They said, using the nickname that they'd heard Sans use before. "Remember when you said we could hang with Undyne sometime..?"

* * *

Undyne was playing her piano while she waited for Papyrus to come for his cooking lesson. Usually Toriel and Chuck, the kindest of the humans, would join them for the lesson, but obviously they were busy with preparing for Chara's celebration now.

There was a knock on her door (which was a SUPER COOL TEETH DOOR that Alphys and her made!) so she stopped playing the piano, walked over to the door, and opened it. Papyarus was waiting ouside. She grinned. Just what she needed to get her mind off the beast-human! Some quality time with her favourite skeleton!

"Hi, Papyrus! Ready for your extra-private, one-on-one training?" She asked, joking a bit.

"YOU BET I AM! AND I BROUGHT A FRIEND!" Classic Papyrus.

He moved out of the way to reveal his friend, who'd been standing behind him. Undyne was halfway through a sentence before she realised who it was. "Hi, I don't think we've…"

She ground her teeth together and the beast-human nervously smiled and waved at her.

"…" Undyne was silent, looking in between Papyrus and the beast-human.

"…" Papyrus was silent as he grinned at her, seemingly not noticing the tension.

"Why don't. You two. Come in?" Undyne said through gritted teeth, turning around and walking back inside.

* * *

Frisk knew instantly that Undyne didn't want them there, but they had kind of expected that. It still made them sad and nervous. They followed Papyrus into her house and looked around. It had a tiled floor, and there was a rug under the wooden table and beside the window. There was a piano near the window as well, and a giant sword next to the table. The tablecloth had a fish on it, and there were four wooden stools around the table. She also had a kitchen connected to the living room.

"HERE, UNDYNE." Papyrus was saying as Frisk looked around. "MY FRIEND BROUGHT A GIFT FOR YOU, ON THEIR OWN!"

He pulled out a bone. "Uhhh… thanks. I'll, uh, put it with the others." Undyne opened a drawer filled with bones and put the one Papyrus had given her in with the rest. "So are we ready to start?"

"WHOOPSY DOOPSY! I JUST REMEMBERED! I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM! YOU TWO HAVE FUN!" Papyrus then proceeded to jump straight out of the window. Undyne turned to look at Frisk.

"…So why are YOU here? To rub your victory in my face? To humiliate me even further? IS THAT IT?" Undyne glared.

"No!" Frisk said.

"Then why are you here?" Undyne seemed to realised something. "Wait, I get it. You think I'm gonna be friends with you, huh? Right?"

Frisk hesitantly nodded their head.

"Really? How delightful! I accept! Let's all frolic in the fields of friendship! …NOT! Why would I EVER be friends with YOU?!" Frisk wasn't going to lie; that hurt.

 _I told you this was a stupid idea._ The Hunger spoke up.

"If you weren't my houseguest, I'd beat you up right now! You're the enemy of everyone's hopes and dreams! I WILL NEVER BE YOUR FRIEND. Now get out of my house!"

Suddenly, Papyrus appeared at the shattered window. "DANG! WHAT A SHAME… I THOUGHT UNDYNE COULD BE FRIENDS WITH YOU. BUT I GUESS… I OVERESTIMATED HER. SHE'S JUST NOT UP TO THE CHALLENGE."

"CHALLENGE?! What?!" Undyne yelled as Papyrus ran away again. "Papyrus! Wait a second…! Darnit! He thinks I can't be friends with you?! Fuhuhu! What a joke! I could make friends with a wimpy loser like you any day! I'll show him!"

 _It seems I overestimated her intelligence once again._

"Listen up, human. We're not just going to be friends. We're going to be… BESTIES. I'll make you like me so much… You won't be able to think of anyone else! FUHUHUHU! It's the PERFECT REVENGE! …Why don't you have a seat?" Before they took a seat, Frisk decided to inspect items that had caught their interest. It was becoming routine. First, they looked out the window.

"I can't believe he leapt through the window like that. Normally he NAILS the landing." Next came the piano. "What? I'm not going to serenade you."

They looked at a door that looked like it led to another part of the house. "You wanna see my room? TOO BAD! No nerds allowed! …Well, maybe some nerds…"

They looked inside of the bone drawer. The annoying dog winked at them. They closed the draw. They then looked at the oven. "This oven is some top-of-the-line MTT thing. But, y'know, as much as technology advances… Nothing beats food home cooked with fire magic."

They looked inside Undyne's silverware drawer. There were forks, spoons, knives… tiny swords, axes, spears, nunchucks…

 _I'm not sure why I bother being surprised anymore._

They looked at the strangely warm fridge. "I hate cold food, you may remember. So Alphys and Betty fixed up my fridge so it heats up food instead! Hot Fridge… The world's greatest invention!"

Frisk was intimidated by the size of the sword Undyne had leaning against the wall. It was twice as tall as they were! "Humans suck, but their history… kinda rules. Case in point: this giant sword! Historically, Super Humans wielded swords up to 10x their size. Now, I know Super Humans are extremely rare – the other humans told me that, but their legendary exploits are AMAZING. When I first heard that, I immediately wanted one of these things! So me and Alphys built that together. Alphys figured out all the specs herself… She's smart, huh?!"

Finally, Frisk sat down at one of the stools by the table. "Comfortable? I'll get you something to drink." Undyne got a bunch of items out of her fridge and placed them along her kitchen counter. "All set! What would you like?"

As Frisk got up to select something, Undyne threw an energy spear at the table, cracking it all the way through the middle. Frisk sat back onto their seat, anxiously eyeing Undyne. "HEY! DON'T GET UP! YOU'RE THE GUEST! SIT DOWN AND ENJOY YOURSELF! …Um, why not just point to what you want? You can use the spear!"

 _Well, that was shock- please no. Don't do what I think you're doing._ Frisk immediately picked up the spear and pointed it straight at Undyne, wiggling their eyebrows at amazing speeds. "…Are you… Hitting on me?"

Frisk snickered and pointed the spear at the sugar cup next. "That sugar's for the tea. I'm not gonna give you a cup of sugar! What do I look like, the ice-cream woman? Do human ice-cream women TERRORIZE HUMANITY with ENERGY SPEARS? Are their ice-cream songs a PRELUDE TO DESTRUCTION? IS THAT IT?"

"Yeah!" Frisk nodded their head.

"…what? Really? That rules!"

 _Honestly, she already has so much misinformation, I bet this won't even make a difference…_

Frisk pointed at the yellow soda bottle. "Oh, soda? Actually, uh… that's mine. Sorry!"

They shrugged and pointed at the hot chocolate instead. "Oh, you want some hot chocolate? Wait, wait, I just remembered… That container's empty. Chara drank it all a couple days ago when they came for their training and I haven't got any more yet."

Frisk skipped over the teabox and went straight for the fridge. "The fridge?! You want to have the entire fridge?! No!"

They pointed the spear at the sword next. "Believe me, I would GLADLY give you your fill of swords. If you weren't my beloved houseguest!"

Finally, Frisk pointed at the teabox, the blatantly correct choice. "…tea, huh? Coming right up!" Undyne put the water on to boil and informed them that it'd take a while. When it was done, Undyne brought it to them in a cup shaped like a fish. "Here we are. Careful, it's hot."

Undyne went around and sat on the stool opposite to Frisk. When they didn't drink it immediately, she got impatient. "It's not THAT hot! Just drink it already!" They took a sip of the tea. It was burning hot, but otherwise really good.

"It's pretty good, right? Nothing but the best for my ABSOLUTELY PRECIOUS FRIEND!" There was a pause. It was nowhere near as dramatic as Mettaton's were. "Hey… You know, it's kind of strange you chose THAT tea. Golden flower tea… That's Asgore's favourite kind. He's the king of monsters! Actually, now that I think about it… You kind of remind me of him. You're both TOTAL weenies! …sort of."

There was another pause. "Y'know, I was a pretty hotheaded kid." _And you're still a pretty hotheaded adult._ "Once, to prove I was the strongest, I tried to fight Asgore. Emphasis on TRIED. I couldn't land a single blow on him! And worse, the whole time, he refused to fight back!" Frisk's tea was almost gone. "I was so humiliated… Afterwards, he apologized and said something goofy… 'Excuse me, do you want to know how to beat me?' I said yes, and from then on, he trained me. One day, during practice, I finally knocked him down. I felt… bad." Frisk had run out of tea. "But he was beaming… I had never seen someone so proud to get their butt kicked. Anyway, long story short, he kept training me… And now I'm the head of the Royal Guard! So I'm the one who gets to train dorks to fight! Like Chara and…"

"…and Papyrus." Frisk finished her sentence.

"Yeah… But, um, to be honest… I don't know if… I can ever let Papyrus into the Royal Guard. Don't tell him I said that! He's just… Well… I mean, it's not that he's weak. He's actually pretty freaking tough! It's just that… He's… He's too innocent and nice!" Frisk felt their sins weighing on their back. "I could NEVER send him into battle! He'd get ripped into little smiling shreds. That's part of why… I organised a cooking class, with him and some of the Royals, you know? So, um, maybe he can do something else with his life."

Undyne seemed to snap out of her reverie. "Oh, sorry, I was talking for so long… You're out of tea, aren't you? I'll get you some more." She stood up and walked to the kettle. Suddenly, she stopped. "Wait a second. Papyrus… his cooking lesson… HE WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE THAT RIGHT NOW! And if HE'S not here to have it… YOU'LL HAVE TO HAVE IT FOR HIM!"

Undyne jumped onto the kitchen surface and knocked all of the things off of it, making a huge mess. "That's right! NOTHING has brought Papyrus and I closer than cooking! Which means if I give you his lesson… WE'LL BECOME CLOSER THAN YOU'LL EVER IMAGINE! Fuhuhu! Afraid?! We're gonna be best friends!"

Undyne jumped over to Frisk, picked them up, and jumped back to the kitchen counter. "Let's start with the sauce!" Undyne stomped on the ground and some vegetables fell from the ceiling. "Envision these vegetables as your greatest enemy! Now! Pound them to dust with your fists!"

"Um, Undyne, I would but… those tomatoes are very… red." Frisk said uncomfortably. Undyne looked confused and then realised what Frisk was saying.

"Oh… yeah. Let's go to the noodles first instead, then." Undyne stomped on the floor and this time a pot and a box of noodles fell onto the MTT-brand stove. "Homemade noodles are the best! BUT I JUST BUY STORE-BRAND! THEY'RE THE CHEAPEST! NGAHHHHHHHH!" Undyne calmed down a bit and said "Uh, just put them in the pot."

 _What the- Well. You throw everything in the pot as hard as you can, including the box. You've dented the pot._ The Hunger narrates.

"YEAH! I'M INTO IT! Alright! Now it's time to stir the pasta! As the general rule of thumb, the more you stir… THE BETTER IT IS! Ready? Let's do it!" Frisk stirred so fiercely they snapped the wooden spoon. They were enjoying the cooking lesson quite a lot.

Both of them looked at the broken spoon before Undyne said "Uh, nevermind! Let me do it!" An energy spear materialised and smashed the pot multiple times, causing even more dents. "Fuhuhu! That's the stuff! Alright, now for the final step: TURN UP THE HEAT! Let the stovetop symbolise your passion! Let your hopes and dreams turn into burning fire! READY? Don't hold anything back!"

Frisk turned the knob all the way. Unfortunately for Undyne's house, MTT-brand ovens do not need limits on their heat capacity. Although it was partially Undyne's fault for chanting "HOTTER!" over and over until the fireball consumed the whole house. Either way, the two of them were suddenly standing in a room full of fire.

 _That failed spectacularly._

"Ah. Man, no wonder Papyrus sucks at cooking." They both turned to look at the stove. "So what's next? Scrapbooking? Friendship bracelets? …oh, who am I kidding. I really screwed this up, didn't I? I can't force you to like me, human. Some people just don't get along with each other. I understand if you feel that way about me. And if we can't be friends… That's okay."

Frisk was quite sad, and not just because they were standing surrounded by flames. (It wasn't like the flames could kill them, anyway.) Undyne continued.

"Because… If we're not friends… IT MEANS I CAN DESTROY YOU WITHOUT REGRET!" Very suddenly, Frisk's soul was drawn into battle. It shocked them. "I've been defeated… my house is in shambles… I even failed to befriend you. That's it. I don't care if you're my guest anymore. One final rematch! All out on both sides! IT'S THE ONLY WAY I CAN REGAIN MY LOST PRIDE! NOW COME ON! HIT ME WITH ALL YOU'VE GOT! NGAHHHHH!"

 _Undyne is letting you make the first attack._ Out of habit, Frisk checked Undyne. _UNDYNE – ATK 41 DEF 21. This time, don't hold anything back!_

"Show me what you've got!" Undyne demanded. Frisk hesitantly swung at Undyne…

 _Wow, you did 20 damage without even wanting to hurt Undyne? You're even stronger than I thought._ Frisk was looking at Undyne worriedly.

"What…? You're that strong… even attacking with no intent to kill, you still do enough damage to kill a Whimsun?" Frisk winced. "Heh, you know what?" Undyne dropped her spear. "I'm glad you're the way you are, nerd. Now I know you aren't just some wimpy loser… you're a wimpy loser with a big heart! But if you ever do kill anyone… I'll beat the hell out of you! That's what friends are for, right? Fuhuhu! Now let's get the hell out of this flaming house!"

The fight ended and they headed outside. "Well, that was fun, huh? We'll have to hang out another time…! But, uh, somewhere else I guess. In the meantime, I guess I'll go hang with Papyrus." Undyne paused. "Actually… It's getting kind of late… You wanna go and bug Papyrus and Sans until they let us sleep at their place?!"

And that was how Frisk ended up scrunched up on the couch, asleep, with Undyne at the skeleton brother's house for their first night in the Underground. It had been a long day.

* * *

Meanwhile, Chara was grumbling about how they had to wait until the next day to watch the next MTT show. The anticipation kept them up all night.

 _ **Frisk seems to be feeling kind of frisky lately.**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **God that joke is so overused I'm sorry.**_

 _ **Fun fact: the only type of jokes I actually don't like are overused ones or ones that just aren't funny. So please, please send me as many puns as possible. I'm not even kidding. That would make my day. (Also, puns will be in this story, never fear.)**_


	13. Chapter 13

_**Okay, so, I wanted to have something tragic happen in this chapter, y'know, 13 is an unlucky number and all of that, but I couldn't think of anything. I can say now that the only angst that will ever happen in this story will be in nightmares (**_ _ **not really I'm lying**_ _ **) (shh don't read that bit). And if you doubt my sincerity, you should know that I don't like unnecessarily lying. Sort of like a personal honour code. Except I still lie when I feel it's blatantly obvious that I'm lying. Also I have no honour.**_

 _ **So don't bother telling me "Dishonour on you, dishonour on your cow!" because I can see you typing that and stOP IT**_

 _ **Also,**_ _ **important**_ _ **: I noticed when I was editing the last chapter that fanfiction doesn't actually save some of my formatting, which is why that one is formatted better. All chapters from now on will be formatted the same way, and I might go back and format the previous chapters like that as well if I have the time and motivation.**_

After the human and Undyne had left the burning house, they had apparently taken a boat trip to Snowdin and asked Papyrus and Sans if they could stay at their place, with sheepish grins. Papyrus had agreed readily, happy about the fact that the two of them were friends. Sans had just shrugged and said he didn't really care. He cared a lot. The human ended up sleeping on the skeleton brother's jangly couch, scrunched up with Undyne. They didn't know it, he made sure of that, but Sans was watching them sleep from upstairs.

Which was why, when their blood-red eyes shot open in the dark of night (which was a figurative term, as the night was exactly the same except without the lights on), he was the only one aware of it. He watched them closely as they let out an inhuman growl, growing twice their original size. Undyne shifted uncomfortably as there was no longer space for both of them on the couch. The beast snapped their gaze over to Undyne with a feral grin, revealing many sharp teeth alongside two particularly large sharper teeth.

The beast leant over Undyne, still grinning, and prepared to sink their teeth into her neck.

* * *

Frisk sat up on the couch, gasping. Their frantic breathing drew attention from Undyne, who was just getting up next to them, it seemed. "Woah, punk! You okay?" She asked.

Frisk calmed down a little at seeing her alive and well; it seemed that it had all been just a dream. The part where their friends turned to dust had felt so real… They shook their thoughts off, and told Undyne that it had just been bad dream.

 _Yeah… that, uh, wasn't too pleasant. To say the least._ The Hunger commented. _Morning, by the way. If it is morning. Not sure how long we slept._

 _You can see my dreams?_ Frisk asked The Hunger, surprised, while they also asked Undyne what the time was.

 _Of course I can see your dreams, I only exist inside of your mind. What else am I supposed to do?_ The Hunger replied, while Undyne told them that it was around 10AM. Too early. _Thanks for that, by the way._

 _Are you blaming me for your existence? That's completely unfair! Do you think I WANT to be sharing a mind with you?_ Frisk told The Hunger indignantly.

 _No, you clearly don't. Either way, it's still your fault. Because you had the idea that I existed in your head as the 'bad guy', when you hit your head in Waterfall it created me._

 _Yes, you said something along those lines before. A bit before we fought Undyne, I think._

Before The Hunger could reply to Frisk's statement, they were interrupted by a hand waving in front of their face. "Hey! Hey, punk! Are you there?" Undyne was yelling. When Frisk blinked and looked up at Undyne, she looked relieved.

"You were spacing out and muttering to yourself. You seem okay now, though." She explained, before asking "What was up with all that?"

"Uh, I'm not sure… maybe I'm just tired." Frisk said.

 _You're a bad liar._

 _Shut up._

"Hey, I'm kinda hungry as well. I, uh, haven't had anything to eat since those ice creams. Do you think we could make some soup or something?" They asked, trying to divert focus to something else. Undyne looked excited about the idea. Papyrus, who had just come in the room, agreed and also commented on how they should get a better sleep schedule.

"Heh, maybe Sans is rubbing off on me." Frisk joked. Sans, who was standing at the top of the stairs, laughed as Papyrus yelled "THAT ISN'T A GOOD THING, HUMAN!"

Frisk looked at Sans in surprise as he laughed at their joke, but soon realised that he was just faking his amusement for the sake of Papyrus and Undyne. He was still giving them the evil eye. (Ironically, Frisk was not yet aware of Sans's glowy eye when they used this expression.) They slid their gaze away from him and followed Paps and Undyne into the kitchen, where they proceeded to have a lot of fun and made something almost edible.

* * *

Frisk waved goodbye to Undyne, Papyrus and Sans as they got onto the Riverperson's boat and headed back to Hotland. Their stomach would've rumbled, but fortunately they were technically dead and their stomach no longer did that. It didn't make them feel any less hungry. They had sadly realised, when drinking the soup they'd made, that despite the fact that they could drink normal food it didn't fill them up. That sucked.

They arrived at Hotland and stepped off of the boat, heading north to the elevator. They stepped inside of it and pressed the button for Left Floor 3. There was only one unlit button left, they realised, as they waited for the lift to take them to their destination. When they reached LF3, they stepped out of the lift and looked around.

Unlike the rest of Hotland, this area was a) nowhere near as hot and b) seemed like the floor was more mechanical and futuristic than before. They moved along and reached a bigger room. There was nothing in it other than an empty table and a couple of cobwebs. Frisk moved further onward, and stopped to groan. They received a call.

"Hi, Alphys here! Now, I know you hate these steam jumps, but you're going to have to do a lot of them to get through this puzzle. This one is a bit like the one we saw yesterday. There are two puzzles to the north and the south. You'll have to solve them both to proceed." Alphys paused. "A-also… I'd like to say! I don't really… like giving away puzzle solutions. But if you need help, just call me, ok?"

 _Uh, we actually don't have her number._ The Hunger informed Frisk. They were about to tell Alphys that, when she continued.

"Actually, wait, I have an idea! Let's be friends on UnderNet! Then you can just ping me when you need help!"

 _I wonder if we should tell her that we've been 'friends' this whole time._ They didn't need to tell her.

"Wait, we're already friends, aren't we? I signed you up, didn't I? You've been reading my posts the whole time…" Alphys sounded quite flustered. "Well! I hope! You agree with me! About Mew Mew 2!" She hung up, and (after they'd stopped snickering) they resumed their glaring at the steam jumpy thingies.

 _You'll have to get across them someday. I'd prefer it to be today._ The Hunger coaxed. Frisk ignored them and started leaping across the gaps in between the steam jumpy thingies, until they reached the northern room. They walked through the room towards another one of the laser shooty game room things, but suddenly…

 _Tsunderplane attacks! Not because it's jealous Vulkin is paying attention to you! (Maybe don't hug the Vulkin this time by the way.)_ The Hunger said as Frisk bumped into two monsters.

 _What should I do then?_ Frisk asked.

 _I don't know, encourage it maybe. Or criticize it._ Frisk chose the former, obviously. _You tell Vulkin it's doing a great job. Its attacks become extreme… Vulkin parades around you proudly._

"Hmph! Don't get in my way." Tsunderplane said, while shooting bombs at them alongside Vulkin's fireballs. Vulkin, at the same time, said "Ahh! Ahh! Does my best!"

Frisk spared Vulkin and approached Tsunderplane as it shot more bombs at them.

 _Smells like an airport perfume counter._ Frisk managed to step in the green area around Tsunderplane's attack planes enough times, and it freaked out and started blushing heavily. They spared it as well. They earnt 100G, and headed into the puzzle room.

The puzzle was a lot harder than the other ones had been, but they managed to figure it out. As they left the puzzle room, they saw that two people with strange heads had appeared. They looked almost human but they had strange shapes as heads. They both explained exactly why they loved Mettaton, and what their favourite Mettaton Moments™ were.

Frisk moved on from them, and jumped across a bunch more gaps to reach the southern room. They entered it and looked around. It was a lot bigger than its northern counterpart. There were a bunch of conveyors with lasers moving along them. Also a cactus. After they'd gotten past all of the lasers and had almost made it into the puzzle room, they got another call.

"Hey! This, um, doesn't have anything to do with guiding you… but… Uhh, hey, would you want to watch a human TV show later? Sometime? It's called, um, M… Mew Mew Kissie Cutie…" She seemed to be awaiting a response.

"Uh, sure!" Frisk accepted, despite The Hunger groaning in the back of their mind.

"R-really?! It's so good! It's um, my favourite show!" Alphys proceeded to ramble about the show. Frisk picked up nothing, as she was going too fast. "Uhh, anyway, I think you'd really like it! We should watch it! After you get through all of this!"

She hung up and Frisk moved into the puzzle room. The puzzle was pretty easy, and they solved it quite fast, before heading back to the main room with the steam jumpys. They jump-ied over to the big, runed, glowing door, which opened as they approached with a loud crash.

As they headed through the door, they sniffed the air and asked The Hunger, _What's that smell?_

 _Cobwebs, probably._ The Hunger sounded (thought?) uninterested.

 _How do you know what cobwebs smell like? Like you're so fond of mentioning, you've only existed since yesterday._ As an afterthought, Frisk added, _Also, do cobwebs even smell like anything?_

 _I've been absorbing your memories. Duh. And cobwebs smell like, uh, spiders and… dead insects?_ The Hunger lied, badly. _I don't actually know what they smell like. I just saw that huge cobweb by the big, ominous, purple house/cave/room/thing._

There was indeed an ominous house cave room thing with cobwebs covering it in front of them. Frisk had been too busy talking (thinking?) to The Hunger that they hadn't noticed it. They stopped and regarded it for a moment. It was literally just a purple (and black) building. No windows or anything. Only one door. There was no other way to go along the path, so they moved forward and stepped inside.

It was very dark (which didn't bother them in the slightest.) Everything was covered in cobwebs. The walls, the ceiling, the floor. There was a path leading through the cobwebs, however. As they moved along it, they noticed the masses of purple spiders watching them from the webs. They moved a bit faster. They weren't afraid of spiders, but it seemed like it could be dangerous to stay in the building for longer than necessary.

Frisk stopped, however, when they reached what seemed to be a toll booth thing with one of those barrier things along the path. Of course, Sans was sitting at the booth. Who else?

"sup, kid? you're gonna have to pay 500G to pass here." Sans told them.

"What? Why? Isn't this a public path?" Frisk asked, trying to edge around the barrier while Sans explained why.

"yeah, well. the spider lady, muffet I think her name is, says the spiders need more money. for something or the other. even though the queen helped them get the spiders out of the ruins. i guess it costs a lot to make spider-sized things for millions of spiders." As Sans had been explaining, Frisk had managed to get onto the other side of the barrier. Sans had been watching them the whole time, and sarcastically said "oh no. it seems you've outsmarted me. how could this have happened?"

Frisk snorted a bit, but stopped when Sans warned them that Muffet would most likely sick all of her spiderlings and a couple other things on them if they didn't pay.

"But I don't even have 500G!" They actually weren't sure how much they had, but it probably wasn't that much.

"all right then, tell ya what. since i know you, i'll give you a discount. how's 750G?" Frisk looked scandalized.

"That isn't a discount!"

"oh yeah, i guess you're right. how bout 250G then?" They nodded in acceptance and handed Sans 250 gold, before moving on along the path. They felt his eyes on their back until they'd left the building.

Once outside, they blinked in the sudden light before looking around. The area they were in still seemed rather purple-y, but there were no cobwebs. That was nice. There was also a poster for Mettaton's latest stage performance on the brick wall. "A tragic tale of two star-crossed lovers, kept apart by the tides of fate…" It seemed to be about to start. They had a feeling they knew what was coming next.

* * *

 _Ooh, it's about to start!_ Chara was bouncing with anticipation. _No, wait. Stay calm. Stay dignified. Everyone already thinks you're in love with Mettaton. This will just add fuel to the fire._

A couple seconds later, they were bouncing their leg again.

 _ **As you can see, I provide only the most accurate and technical terms: "Steam jumpy thingies" "Those barrier things" and don't forget "They jump-ied over". This is how true professionals write.**_

 _ **So, I made some sprites of this story's Frisk (Notice the new cover picture? Previously it was just my profile pic, but now it looks professional. (Except not really because it came out all bad on this site)). I posted them on my tumblr, which I would link to but fanfiction deletes any links that go to a different site. You can find me at chipendalejohnson on tumblr.**_

 _ **Or if you want to read this story without any of the hassle of the not-actually-links and the not-as-good formatting, you can find this story on AO3 (Archive Of Our Own) as well.**_


	14. Chapter 14

_**So, I tried something new out with the long bits of dialogue. Once you see it, let me know what you think. (I'm pretty sure it'll be quite obvious when you see it.)**_

 _ **Also, more jokes are in this chapter! Yay, finally!**_

Chara scowled at the screen of the family TV. How _dare_ Mettaton sing a song about being in love with the new human? They were fuming.

One of their siblings, John, the bravest of the humans (which, thought Chara, also meant he was the most foolish) came and flopped down next to Chara on the couch. He was wearing his silly bandana and gloves again.

"You, uh, don't seem too pleased with this show. Why is that?" He said with a smirk, which he didn't bother wiping off his face when Chara transferred their glare to him. "Wait, wait. Don't answer that. I already know why."

"If you say it's because I have a crush on Mettaton, I swear that I will kill you immediately." Chara growled. They were really tired of their family's comments on the matter.

"Whaaat? Nooo, I would _never_. I was going to say it was because you have a crush on the _human_."

Chara turned bright red and spluttered, unable to answer for a while, deliberately ignoring John's shit-eating grin. Eventually, they yelled "YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THE SMART ONE!"

John laughed a bit before replying "What, you think I figured this out myself? Nah. I was just the only one that Betty could convince to tell you that she'd figured it out."

" _What?_ How many of you did she tell?!" Chara was quite frantic at this point.

"Everyone except mum and dad."

"I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL HER!" Chara furiously shouted.

"Language, my child!" Toriel called from the kitchen. They hoped she hadn't heard the rest of the conversation.

Chara was getting up off the couch before they remembered that the show was still on. They sat down, muttering "I'm going to kill her, _after_ the show is over."

They tried to ignore John's snickering as they focused back on the television.

* * *

"SO SAD. SO SAD THAT YOU ARE GOING TO THE DUNGEON." Mettaton pulled a button out of his dress. "WELL, TOODLES!"

Frisk yelled out in surprise as the ground opened up underneath them when Mettaton pressed the button. Luckily, they landed on their feet. You know the saying; a cat always lands on its feet. Except Frisk isn't a cat so that saying has nothing to do with anything. Anyway! They were happy that some of the rose petals had fallen out of their hair.

"OH NO! WHATEVER SHALL I DO? MY LOVE HAS BEEN CAST AWAY INTO THE DUNGEON. A DUNGEON WITH A PUZZLE SO DASTARDLY, MY PARAMOUR WILL SURELY PERISH! O, HEAVENS HAVE MERCY! IT'S THE HORRIBLE COLOURED TILE MAZE!" Mettaton started explaining what each tile did. "A GREEN TILE SOUNDS A NOISE, AND THEN YOU MUST FIGHT A MONSTER. RED TILES, WELL… ACTUALLY, WAIT A SECOND. DIDN'T YOU DO THIS PUZZLE BACK IN SNOWDIN, HUMAN? THAT'S RIGHT. YOU REMEMBER ALL THE RULES, DON'T YOU?" Before they could answer, Mettaton continued. "GREAT… THEN I WON'T WASTE YOUR TIME REPEATING THEM! OH, AND YOU'D BETTER HURRY. BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T GET THROUGH IN 30 SECONDS…" A wall of fire appeared behind them. There was only one way out before that, anyway. "YOU'LL BE INCINERATED BY THESE JETS OF FIRE! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHA… HA… HA! MY POOR LOVE! I'M SO FILLED WITH GRIEF, I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING!"

Frisk laughed at that, and Mettaton wished them luck before the timer started. They rushed forward on the annoyingly slow conveyor belt, before moving along the puzzle. They made it about half way before the time ran out. They thought that this one might've been rigged, since they did so well on the last ones. Either way, they lost.

"OOOOH, I'M SO SORRY! LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE OUT OF TIME! HERE COME THE FLAMES, DARLING!" There were now two walls of flames on either side of them. They thought that, if it came down to the wire, they could probably run through them fast enough to not get hurt, but they wanted to see what would happen first.

The flames got closer; Mettaton made sure they noticed by commenting on it. They slowly got closer and closer. The flames were right next to Frisk, and they were just about to run away, when…

"ANY. MINUTE. NOW!" Mettaton paused. "…(ROBOTIC COUGH)."

Suddenly, Frisk's phone rang. "Watch out! I'll save you! I'm hacking into the firewall right now!"

 _It's about damn time, Alphys. Shame you couldn't save us from the play as well._ The Hunger replied, although they were mostly talking to Frisk. _Also, lol. Firewall._

 _Stop swearing around children, it's not nice._ Frisk replied, before tuning back in on Alphys and Mettaton as the firewalls went out.

"OH NO! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN? FOILED AGAIN BY THE BRILLIANT DOCTOR ALPHYS!"

"That's right! Come on, Mettaton, give up already! You'll never be able to defeat us… Not as long as we work together!"

 _And suddenly everything is sunshine and rainbows, even though we're underground, all through the power of friendship._

 _Why are you so sarcastic?_

 _Give me a break, I was born yesterday._

 _Mmm. I guess so._

 _Actually, come to think of it, sunshine wouldn't be that great for you anyway._

"Your puzzle's over… Now go home and leave us alone!"

"PUZZLE? OVER? ALPHYS, DARLING, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT…? DID YOU FORGET WHAT THE GREEN TILES DO? THEY MAKE A SOUND, THEN YOU HAVE TO FIGHT A MONSTER. WELL, DARLING… THAT MONSTER… IS ME!" Mettaton rushed at them, still in a dress, and initiated the Fight. Some battle music was playing in the background. They checked him, again.

 _METTATON – ATK 30 DEF 255. His metal body still renders him invulnerable to attack. Don't know what else you expected._

"THIS IS IT, DARLING! SAY GOODBYE!" Their phone started ringing again. "IS THAT YOUR PHONE? YOU'D BETTER ANSWER IT!"

"H-hey! Th-this seems bad, but don't worry!" They heard Alphys say. "Th-there's one last thing I installed on your phone…! You see that yellow button…? Press it!"

They hit the big, red, yellow button. The phone started resonating with Mettaton's presence. Suddenly, their Soul flipped around, and turned yellow! "Now, shoot at him!" They willed their soul to shoot MTT, and little yellow projectiles came out of it, hitting Mettaton and making him shudder.

"OOOH! OOOOOOH! YOU'VE DEFEATED ME! HOW CAN THIS BE, YOU WERE STRONGER THAN I THOUGHT, ETC. WHATEVER." Mettaton flew away and the Fight ended.

"L-looks like you beat him! Y-you did a really great job out there." Alphys told them.

"All thanks to you." Frisk replied.

"What? Oh no, I mean… You were the one doing everything cool! I just wrote some silly programs for your phone." Alphys said, self depreciatingly. "Anyway, we're almost at the CORE. It's just past MTT resort. Come on! Let's finish this!"

They put down their phone and moved along the deactivated puzzle, before reaching the exit of the dungeon. They appeared in an area that looked a bit more like the rest of Hotland; orange, red, and made of rocks and sand. There was a lift to their right, probably Right Floor 3, and there were steps up to what must've been MTT resort. At the bottom of the steps were the Nice Cream Guy and the two Royal Guards. The Nice Cream Guy said that he'd sold all his nice cream to the two guards, and the guards told Frisk to not tell Undyne that they weren't killing them. They immediately called Undyne (or Papyrus, rather, as they didn't have Undyne's number but knew she was hanging with Paps).

"WHAT?! RG01 and RG02 are slacking off?! Come ON! They should be KILLING you right now! Not that I want them to, I mean. But they could at least TRY, y'know?!"

"I DIDN'T KILL YOU…" Papyrus said. "WHERE'S MY ICE CREAM?" They laughed and headed to their left, before realising it was just the theatre stage and heading back and up the stairs. They were right; MTT resort was just up there… and so was Sans. (There was also a piece of paper asking them to come into the creepy alley for great deals. They ignored it.)

He was standing next to the doors that led inside the resort. "hey. i heard you're going to the core. how about grabbing some dinner with me first?" He asked.

"Yeah, sure." They replied.

"great, thanks for treating me." Frisk gave him a look as he walked down to an alley. When he realised they weren't following, he said "over here. i know a shortcut."

They reluctantly followed and ended up sitting at a fancy, candle-lit table. "well, here we are. so. your journey's almost over, huh? i gotta ask…" Sans paused.

"why are you continuing? if you keep going the way you are, you'll meet the royal family. which means you'll meet the humans. maybe sometimes it's better to take what's given to you. they'll break the barrier soon, and we'll all be free… you can leave without even having seen a human."

As he paused again and turned slightly, Frisk mulled over his words. He was right; they could just hang around with Paps and Undyne and wait it out. They'd either starve or be set free. Both of them were appealing.

Sans continued. "…hey. let me tell you a story. so i'm a sentry in snowdin forest, right? i sit out there and watch for humans. it's kind of boring.

fortunately… since i'm the first person, besides the ruins monsters, that sees any new humans, the queen likes to check on me often. now, the queen has a great sense of humour. so one day, i'm telling my jokes, and suddenly she starts telling some too.

'Knock knock.' She goes. I say, 'who's there?' 'Old lady!' 'old lady who?' 'Oh! I did not know you could yodel.'"

Frisk cracked up."yeah, that was my reaction too. so we keep trading jokes, and we keep laughing. she's the best audience i've ever had.

'knock knock!' 'Who is there?' 'dishes.' 'Dishes who?' 'dishes a very bad joke.'" Frisk kept laughing. "needless to say, she has a perfect sense of humour. we kept telling each other jokes for hours. eventually, I had to leave. papyrus gets kind of cranky without his bedtime story.

but i told her to come by again, and so she did. then she did again. and again. it's a thing now. telling bad jokes by my station. it rules." Sans looked away for a second. "…one day, though, i noticed she wasn't laughing much. keep in mind, this was quite a while ago.

so i asked her what was up. then she asked me something strange. 'if another human ever comes through this door… could you please, please promise something, as the Ruins Door sentry? watch over them, and protect them, will you not?'

now, i hate making promises. but, y'know, she is the queen and all. and… someone who sincerely likes bad jokes… has an integrity you can't say 'no' to." Sans looked away once again. "do you get what i'm saying? that promise i made to her… you know what would have happened if she hadn't said anything? …buddy."

The lights in his eye sockets flickered and went out. "… _You'd be dead where you stand._ " Frisk unconsciously moved backwards, away from him. Sans closed his eyes. When he reopened them, the lights were back. "…hey, lighten up, bucko! i'm just joking with you. besides… haven't i done a great job protecting you? i mean, look at yourself. you haven't died a single time.

that's right, isn't it? well, chalk it up to my great skills. heh." Sans got up and moved away from the table. "well, that's all. take care of yourself, kid. 'cause someone really cares about you." He walked away, in the direction opposite of the exit, and disappeared. Frisk stayed where they were for a while, processing everything they'd learnt.

After they'd fully contemplated everything, they had a look around. There was a Wall of Fame full of quotes from visiting celebrities. They were all from Mettaton. There was also a performance schedule. Comedians, dancers, Sans… it seemed there was a break going on at the time. There were a couple monsters around, but Frisk ignored them, and they ignored Frisk. They only one they recognised the species of was a Snowdrake with glasses on. There was also a huge blob fish thing lady at the reception desk place.

They moved along and got out of the dining area. They were immediately greeted by a statue of Mettaton in a fountain that was spraying water over the floor. They avoided that and had a better look around. There were a bunch of people waiting by an elevator, which seemed to be out of order. There was also a big sign that said MTT and had a burger next to it. It seemed to be a restaurant. There was also what looked like hotel rooms along a corridor to the right of the entrance. They decided to stop by the shop and see if there were any drinks.

"Welcome to MTT-Brand Burger Emporium, home of the Glamburger. Sparkle up your day™. How can I help you, o customer?" A cat in a MTT-Brand Burger Emporium suit asked Frisk. They had a look at the menu. It was quite expensive, and mostly food and not drink: 60G – Starfait. 120G – Glamburger. 300G – Legendary Hero. 500G – Steak in the Shape of Mettaton's Face. They bought the Starfait, and the cat made a horrifying face and said "Thanksy! Have a FABU-FUL day!"

They took the drink and put it in their convenient magical box dimension that Alphys had installed on their phone, so they could have it later. Then they started to talk with the cat of nightmare faces.

"What? Why are you trying to talk to me? I'll get in trouble if I get chummy with the customers. Sorry." The nightmare cat paused, and made another horrifying face and waved his arms around. "…SO, I wanted to be an ACTOR. Now, what can I do for you, little buddy?"

"How about some life advice?" Frisk asked, while The Hunger commented, _Finally, someone who can haunt your nightmares with me._

"Take it from me, little buddy. I'm getting on in my years, so make sure you remember what I tell you. You've still got time. Don't live like me. I'm 19 years old and I've already wasted my entire life." The cat was now smoking a cigarette.

"I'm 16 and I've already managed to be turned into a vampire against my will." Frisk told him cheerfully. The cat grinned in his horrifying way.

"Listen. I like you, little buddy. So I'm going to save you a lot of trouble. Never interact with attractive people. Unless you're 'one of them' they're just going to take advantage of you. Like that time those two chicks in the alleyway asked me to sneak them some glamburgers. And I, naïve teenager that I was, said yes to them. Bad idea." Frisk asked him to elaborate.

"So I went out into the alley to see those two ladies, and uh… you know, see what'd happen next." The nightmare got a sheepish look on his face. "…Then my boss, uh, saw me and asked what I was doing. I was so startled, the hamburgers in my pockets tumbled to the ground. Not wanting to lose face, I scrambled to pick them up! But, as I was leaning over, the weight of the remaining hamburgers… caused my pants to fall down. Then the girls laughed at me. Everyone calls me Burgerpants now."

They patted poor Burgerpants on his back.

* * *

Chara was freaking out. After the show had ended (and they'd threatened Betty to tell no one else, or else), they'd come back to see that the TV said "Finale coming soon!" Which meant there was only one more show…

…before they got to see the new human in person.

 _ **Reminder, let me know what you think of the dialogue bits separated by paragraphs. I didn't want them to become huge, annoying to read chunks, but I didn't want to just keep writing "Sans paused" over and over in between them. If you'd prefer huge chunks, let me know!**_


	15. Chapter 15

_**I'm very sorry that this chapter took a while, I wanted it done by the 30th of November but I only started it on the 1st of December. So that plan backfired completely.**_

 _ **Anyway, I hope you enjoy, as always! I have some important stuff to say at the end.**_

Frisk hesitantly moved out of the resort and along the bridge to the CORE. It looked really cool and futuristic, but at the same time scary and also there were a bunch of shadow sausages standing at the entrance. They got a call.

 _Ugh, again?_ The Hunger sounded rather annoyed. They ignored it. When they answered the call, it was obviously Alphys.

"Huh? Who are they? N-nobody else is supposed to be here… Oh well! We can't worry about that now!" She said. Frisk continued along the bridge and over to the entrance of the CORE, which was surrounded in glowing lights. They stepped inside and looked around. There were three options of where to go; in front of them was an elevator, and there were two doorways the left and right of it, respectively. "Ready? This is it! Take the elevator up to the top of the CORE!

However, when they tried to use it, the lift didn't work. Alphys commented on how that was strange before telling them to go through the right doorway and keep heading up. They did so, but were stopped by a pit of fire blocking the path.

"Alright, now just keep heading up!" Alphys told them, but then soon saw the problem. "…That pit… isn't on my map." She sounded confused, but quickly recovered. "Forget it! Let's try the left side!"

They turned around and headed back to the first room, before heading through the left door. There was a slightly long hall, with a circuits all over the floor and strange, glowing totem poles rising out of the abyss along the sides of the path.

"Okay, you should be able to make it through here…" Suddenly, one of the spoopy shadow sausages that they'd seen earlier rushed at them. "W-watch out!" Alphys yelled, as they were drawn into battle.

 _Madjick pops out of its hat!_ It was a strange monster with invisible limbs that had magic orbs floating on either side of its head. It was wearing a witch's hat, a strange tunic and boots that had curled ends, like jester's boots. Its head was obscured by the hat and all you could see was a slightly insane grin. Frisk checked it after getting over their surprise. _MADJICK – ATK 29 DEF 24. This magical mercenary only says magic words._

"Please and thank you." The monster said, as an orb swooped at them and left behind floating crosses that disappeared after a couple seconds.

 _Madjick peers at you with strange eyes._ Frisk tried to talk to it. It interrupted them by chattering to itself. _Its gibberish dizzies you… your DEFENSE drops by one._

"Alakazam!" The orb shot many cross projectiles at Frisk, who was still wobbling around, dizzy. They were hit once but were able to spare it after that, although they were still feeling confused. They earnt 60G.

"T-that was close… Wh… why are there so many monsters here? I mean… It's no problem, r-r-right? W-w-we've just got to keep heading forward!" Alphys sounded quite worried. They continued along the hall and reached a door with a strange symbol above it, which reminded them a bit of the Delta Rune. It wasn't exactly the same, thought. They disregarded it and kept going forward.

There was forcefield blocking the way to a bridge made of glass that crossed the abyss. There were a couple more totem poles, and some deactivated lasers to the sides. It was easy to see the circuitry underneath the glass bridge.

"Looks like you can't proceed until you hit the switch. B-but those lasers will activate when you do. Ummm… looks like they'll come in this order: Orange. Orange. Blue. G-got it? Move until the third one!" Frisk pressed the switch but soon realised that Alphys had got the order wrong. They were hit by the first laser, which had been blue, but otherwise escaped unscathed. It was good that they were getting a hold of the beastly tendencies, otherwise they may have gone psycho. As it was, they just let out a short growl before calming down again.

"Oh my god… are you hurt? I… I'm so sorry, I… I gave you the wrong order." Alphys sounded distraught. "…Everything's going to be fine, okay? L-let's just keep heading to the right."

The landscape had changed, and now they were walking on a grey tiled floor, lined with flashing lights, with strange tubes holding coloured wires along the purplish walls. They were also at a crossroads. They could either keep heading to the right, or go up.

"A crossroads… Uhhh… Tr… Try heading to the right!" They were about to go right, but Alphys quickly changed her mind and asked them to go up instead. There was another sausage in the northern room, which had panels over the floor and- …they didn't get to see the rest, because they were dragged into battle.

 _Knight Knight blocks the way!_ It was what seemed to be a draconic face in knight's armour, wielding a Morningstar. Frisk checked it, out of habit. _KNIGHT KNIGHT – ATK 36 DEF 36. This megaton mercenary wields the Good Morningstar._

" **Goodbye.** " The monster said, summoning many miniature morningstars and smashing them all over the arena in an attempt to hit Frisk.

 _Smells like stardust._ They decided to sing to the monster. _You sing Shyren's song. Knight Knight starts to look sleepy…_

" **Close your eyes…** " A miniature sun appeared and shot even smaller balls of light at Frisk, which were very hard to avoid due to the sheer amount of them.

 _Knight Knight watches quietly._ Frisk kept singing, and the monster fell asleep and started snoring. They spared it and earnt 70 gold.

"Sorry, I… I… I thought that… Let's try the right path instead." They exited the northern room and headed east. They came across a blue bridge that had many, many blue lasers along it. There were a couple red lights glowing within the darkness surrounding it.

"M… more lasers… Okay, I… I won't mess around this time. I'll just deactivate the lasers and let you through." There was a pause. The lasers were still there. "They're… they're not turning off… I can't turn them off, I… I-I-It's okay! I have this under control! I'm going to turn off the p-power for that whole node. Then you can walk across." The lights turned off at the same time as the lasers. "Okay, go!"

They walked along the long bridge, becoming highly nervous as there was what seemed to be an unending row of lasers. Suddenly… "W-WAIT! STOP!" All of the lasers turned back on. They were surrounded by beams of blue light, and there were even some going straight through them. They stood perfectly still.

"Th-the power… It's turning itself back on. D-damn it… Th-this isn't supposed to… I… I'm going to turn it off again. When it turns off, move a little, and then STOP. OK? Y-you won't get h-h-hurt."

They moved forward slightly before having to stop as the lasers flickered on again. They repeated the movement until they reached the end of the bridge. "S-see? I've got everything under control. Everything's under control!" Alphys sounded like she was telling it to herself more than to Frisk.

While they moved forward, they asked The Hunger, _Hey, you okay? You haven't really been talking much, apart from to narrate the Fights. You haven't even been insulting Alphys!_

 _Isn't that a good thing from your perspective?_ It answered snarkily.

 _Yeah, but you're being kind of suspicious._

 _Hmph._ Before Frisk could ask it to elaborate on the 'hmph', Alphys started talking again. They were at a three-way crossroads; four if you counted the way they'd came.

"OK! Y-you should… You should… I don't know?" _Very useful, Alphys. Who knows what we'd do without you?_ It seemed The Hunger was back to normal. "This doesn't look like my map at all… I'm sorry… I… I… I have to go."

 _Way to ditch us, Alphys._ Frisk noticed that there were a bunch of signs on the wall. _Ew, it smells like ozone here._

 _What does ozone even smell like?_ Frisk asked as they moved to get a better look at the electronic signs.

 _It smells like this place._

 _Very descriptive, thanks._ Frisk read the signs. One read 'North, the warrior's path. West, the sage's path. Any path leads to the end.' The other, 'East… The End.' They headed west, since they didn't want to go on the warrior's path, and they didn't know what to expect in the east. They saw a conveyor belt carrying the ice blocks from Snowdin and chucking them into the abyss. However, this abyss was white, unlike the other ones that were black. It also evaporated the ice blocks as soon as they made contact.

Frisk headed further along the path. There was a sign. 'Solve this puzzle and The End will open.' There was one of the familiar shoot-y box puzzles, but this one was much more complicated than the others had been. Eventually, they managed to get it right, but they'd been there a while by then. They left the puzzle area and continued along the path. There was another crossroads. They decided to go up instead of right. They found a dead end with a sign that said 'Why not relax and have a nice snack?' alongside a Glamburger. They shrugged and picked it up, despite knowing they were unable to eat it.

After that, Frisk turned around and left the room, going right this time. They found another sign at another three-way crossroad. 'Traverse the northern room and the end will open.' They decided not to, since they remembered the warrior path was to the north, and also since they had already opened the end by doing the puzzle. No point in wasting time. They continued going right. There was another crossroad, and they headed up again. They found 100G inside a trash can and headed back down, and kept going down. There were two more signs. 'To the east! This is The End.' 'I cannot fight. I cannot think. But, with patience, I will make my way through.'

There was a long blue bridge ahead of them. Its support beams disappeared into the white abyss. There were flashing lining the walls, and totems rising out of the white. This bridge actually had a railing. They walked along it. They encountered a monster.

 _Astigmatism drew near._ It looked like a Loox, but scarier. Out of habit, they checked it. _ASTIGMATISM – ATK 32 DEF 26. This relentless bully ALWAYS gets its way._

"…Don't pick on me." It told Frisk, as they dodged the masses of magic white hoops that floated around and towards them.

 _Astigmatism gives you a hypnotising glare. You don't pick on it._

"Finally someone gets it." It used the same attack as before.

 _Astigmatism doesn't care about fighting anymore._ Frisk spared it and earnt 50 gold. They continued along the bridge, before reaching the end of it. There was a lift and another door with the almost Delta Rune. They assumed the lift was the one that they were supposed to take to get there, and stepped through the doorway.

They were in a heart-shaped arena. They floor was black and was rimmed with pink. Mettaton was standing in the middle of the arena, with his arms retracted behind his back.

"OH YES. THERE YOU ARE, DARLING. NOW. BEFORE WE START THE SHOW, THERE'S SOMETHING YOU NEED TO KNOW." Frisk cocked their head, interested. "YOU'RE PROBABLY ALREADY AWARE, BUT THIS WAS ALL JUST A BIG SHOW. AN ACT. ALPHYS REACTIVATED PUZZLES, DISABLED ELEVATORS. SHE ENLISTED ME TO TORMENT YOU.

I'M VERY SORRY ABOUT THAT, BUT WE WANTED REAL REACTIONS, YOU SEE. ORIGINALLY, SHE WAS GOING TO COME IN HERE DURING OUR 'BATTLE,' PRETEND TO 'DEACTIVATE' ME, 'SAVING' YOU ONE FINAL TIME.

NOW, I WON'T LIE. THERE WASN'T ONLY ONE REASON FOR ALL THIS. FOR ALPHYS, THE SHOW WAS ACTUALLY A SIDE AFFECT. SHE THOUGHT THAT IF YOU REGARDED HER HIGHLY ENOUGH, SHE'D BE ABLE TO CONVINCE YOU NOT TO GO TO THE CAPITAL. BUT WE REALISED THAT IT WOULDN'T BE NICE TO KEEP YOU IN THE DARK, AFTER YOU WERE SO KIND TO HER." Frisk could see Alphys at the doorway, looking sheepish. "SO. WE'LL DO A FAKE BATTLE HERE, FOR THE SHOW, AND AFTER THAT'S DONE WE'LL SHOW YOU ON YOUR WAY TO THE CAPITAL. DOES THAT SOUND OKAY?"

"Yeah, that's all right for me. I don't mind if you use real attacks in the fake fight, either. It'll make it more interesting, and I can handle it." Frisk told Mettaton.

"IF THAT'S WHAT YOU'D LIKE. I HAVE NO DESIRE TO HARM HUMANS. FAR FROM IT, ACTUALLY. MY ONLY DESIRE IS TO ENTERTAIN. AFTER ALL, THE AUDIENCE DESERVES A GOOD SHOW, DON'T THEY? AND WHAT'S A GOOD SHOW… WITHOUT A PLOT TWIST? THE CAMERAS WILL BE ON IN A COUPLE SECONDS, SO GET READY." Alphys gave them a thumbs-up from the doorway before it closed behind them. "CAMERAS ROLLING IN THREE… TWO… ONE… AND, ACTION!"

Mettaton's arms came out from behind his back, one of them holding a microphone. A spotlight fell onto him, and the ground around them was lit up with red lights. Mettaton started his spiel. "IT'S TIME TO HAVE OUR FINAL SHOWDOWN. IT'S TIME TO FINALLY STOP THE MALFUNCTIONING ROBOT… NOT! DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU HAVE A CHANCE AGAINST ME? SORRY, FOLKS! THE OLD PROGRAM'S BEEN CANCELLED!" The platform rose up into the air and graphic effects lit up the darkness around them to make it look like they were going incredibly fast, while music played in the background. "BUT WE'VE GOT A FINALE THAT'LL DRIVE YOU WILD! REAL DRAMA! REAL ACTION! REAL BLOODSHED! IN OUR NEW SHOW… 'ATTACK OF THE KILLER ROBOT!'"

* * *

Meanwhile, Chara was trying to keep their fangirl squealing down to a minimum since their whole family was sitting down at the TV to watch this episode.

 _ **I'm very sorry that I left it on such a cliffhanger, but I didn't want to have a really long chapter, or to cut it off in the middle of the fight. Of course, if the majority of readers would prefer the chapters to be longer, I could start doing that.**_

 _ **Now, onto the important stuff! So, I made a discord server where we can all talk about the story and you guys can tell me what your theories are and I can be cryptic and not actually answer anything, unless I do by accident.**_

 _ **Sounds like fun, right? Here's the link.**_

 ** _discord_**

 ** _.gg_**

 ** _/fXYgeBK_**

 _ **Because FFN is a pain, I can't actually link to anything and anything that looks like a link gets deleted, so you'll have to copy that and put it in properly.**_


	16. Chapter 16

_**Quick reminder that I can't reply to guest reviews but I do read them.**_

 _ **I felt bad about taking ages with the last one, so here's another chapter of the same length.**_

Chara watched with thinly-veiled excitement as the human's soul was drawn into the fight. It was already yellow again, although the change in colour couldn't hide the crack that was still there. Mettaton was speaking over the battle music.

"YES, I WAS THE ONE THAT RE-ARRANGED THE CORE! I WAS THE ONE THAT HIRED EVERYONE TO KILL YOU! THAT, HOWEVER, WAS A SHORT-SIGHTED PLAN. YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE A HUNDRED TIMES BETTER?" Mettaton asked, and the beast-human shook their head slightly. "KILLING YOU MYSELF!"

The human shot some yellow bullets at him. They bounced off. "THAT WORTHLESS PEA-SHOOTER WON'T WORK ON ME, DARLING. DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT ACTING IS?!" A bunch of magic boxes rained from the sky, and the human shot bullets at them to clear a path. "LISTEN, DARLING. I'VE SEEN YOU FIGHT. YOU'RE WEAK. THIS'LL BE AN EASY WIN FOR ME!" A couple more boxes fell, along with some boxy arms with yellow bits on them. The arms retracted out of the fight when the yellow bits were shot.

"WHEN I'VE DEFEATED YOU, I'LL TAKE YOUR SOUL AND CROSS THE BARRIER! HUNDREDS, THOUSANDS, NO MILLIONS OF HUMANS WILL WATCH ME!" The attacks got more complicated. A bomb was thrown in with the rest, which exploded in a plus sign of magic beams when shot. "GLITZ! GLAMOUR! WHEN I BEAT YOU, I'LL FINALLY HAVE IT ALL! SO WHAT IF A FEW PEOPLE HAVE TO DIE? THAT'S SHOW BUSINESS, BABY!"

Suddenly, the human's phone started ringing. They picked it up and Doctor Alphys was heard through the receiver. "H-hey, d-d-don't give up just yet! Th… there's o-o-one way to beat Mettaton… It's… um… it's… This is a work in progress, so don't judge it too hard… but you know how Metttaon always faces f-f-forward? That's because there's a switch on his backside. S-s-so if y-y-you c-c-can turn him around… um… and, umm… press th-th-th-the switch… He'll be… um… he'll be… Vulnerable. Well, g-g-gotta go!"

"Hey, Mettaton! There's a mirror behind you!" The human told him, thinking fast. It was the first time Chara had properly heard their voice, and it was great.

"OH? A MIRROR? RIGHT, I HAVE TO LOOK PERFECT FOR OUR GRAND FINALE! HMM… I DON'T SEE IT… WHERE IS IT…?" There was a big switch with a huge, obvious label. The human flipped it. Mettaton froze. "DID YOU. JUST FLIP. MY SWICTH?"

Mettaton turned back around and freaked out, spinning around everywhere making robotic noises. The human looked rather nervous. There was a flash of light, and when everyone recovered their view of Mettaton was obscured by a cloud of smoke. Spotlights fell on it and everyone distinctly heard Mettaton's signature "Ohhhh, my." But this time it was in a much less robotic voice, and sounded quite sexy. His silhouette appeared in the smoke, but it was completely unlike his old one as far as Chara could tell. It looked quite humanoid.

"If you flipped my switch, that can only mean one thing. You're desperate for the premiere of my new body. How rude… Lucky for you, I've been aching to show this off for a long time. So… as thanks, I'll give you a handsome reward. I'll make your last living moments…" Another flash of light and the smoke was cleared. They could all clearly see Mettaton in a new, more humanoid body. His legs were amazing, with pink high heels on (or as) his feet. His arms were the same, but his torso was very… pointy. And it had a lot of robotic looking things covering it. He also had black hair which covered one eye, with his face showing a metal plate under the other eye. "ABSOLUTELY beautiful!"

A rating board appeared on the screen, starting at 5000. ' **Mettaton EX makes his premier!** ' It said. He was posing all over the place. The battle music changed.

"Me 'n Alphys spent _ages_ working on this!" Betty told everyone. The rest of the family commented on that, but Chara wasn't paying attention to anything other than the show. (Which is why they didn't notice Toriel shoot Asgore an amused look. (Asgore didn't notice it either.))

The human checked Mettaton EX. The stats appeared on the screen. **METTATON EX – ATK 47 DEF 47. His weak point is his heart-shaped core.** He sent a bunch of magic leg attacks that were no longer boxy and were now shaped like his new legs. They moved in different patterns as well. "Lights! Camera! Action!"

The human boasted that they wouldn't get hit at all. From the knowledge they'd gathered from the previous shows, Chara thought that it was quite likely they actually wouldn't. The ratings gradually increased during Mettaton's turn.

"Drama! Romance! Bloodshed!" Mettaton said, as he sent a mass of bombs and mini bots that looked like box MTT that were holding umbrellas and shooting magic hearts at the human. True to their word, they dodged all attacks. They even managed to shoot some of the bots before they reached them. The human posed dramatically on their turn. Chara thought it showed off their butt pretty well.

Mettaton's next attack was a complicated leg pattern attack with some boxes floating in the way to make it harder. The human just barely got out unscathed. "I'm the idol everyone craves!" Clearly, Mettaton still had an ego the size of the Underground. The human turned and scoffed at the audience that were cheering by the edges of the arena. As the audience booed them, Chara swore they could see a smile tugging at their lips.

"Smile for the camera!" The next attack had one of the older arm attacks, with the yellow box that they needed to shoot for it to get out of the way. There were also more mini MTT's that they shot as well. The ratings were going up a lot, and were now at 6000. The human posed again. They definitely looked like they were enjoying themselves.

"Oooh, it's time for a pop quiz! This one's an essay question!" Mettaton tossed the human a keyboard and a prompt appeared on the screen ' **What do you love most about Mettaton?**.'

The human immediately wrote 'Dat ass.' Chara snorted and laughed while Mettaton told the human to try and keep it PG. He was grinning as well, though, and the ratings went up by 150. (Toriel wasn't amused, however.)

"Your essay really showed everyone your heart. Why don't I show you mine?" Mettaton said, after storing the essay away for future use. His soul came out of his belt and shot lightning bolts everywhere as a couple of mini bots shot their heart projectiles at the human. After a while of dodging, the human sent a couple yellow lasers back at Mettaton's soul. He drew it back into his body with a puff of smoke. The ratings were now at 7000. The human posed again.

"Ooooh, I'm just warming up!" Mettaton sent a wave of mini bots at the human, who shot most of them and dodged the rest of the heart projectiles. The human kept posing.

"But how are you on the dance floor?!" He asked, and a disco ball popped out of the ceiling, sending magic lasers in patterns around the human. Most of them were blue, but there were some white ones that seemed unavoidable, until the human shot the disco ball to turn them blue.

"Can you keep up the pace?!" The disco ball spun a lot faster and the human was hard pressed trying to change the lasers. They were hit once and the ratings went up. Everyone loves a little violence. Or a lot, depending on the person. The human posed once more, _and_ boasted that they wouldn't get hit.

"Lights! Camera! Bombs!" Mettaton sent some indestructible magic boxes along with some bombs that the human had to shoot and move to the side as to not get hit. They were hit once by a bomb laser, however. They hissed in pain. It was a more animal sound than a human one. They pulled a Starfait out of who knows where and drank it. The audience loved the brand. The ratings were at 8500.

"Things are blowing up!" It was the same attack as before, but faster. Luckily, the human avoided all the lasers that time. They posed once more. For some people it might've been becoming boring, but Chara couldn't get enough of it. "Time for our union-regulated break!" The break only lasted for a couple seconds but the human used it to calm down a bit. Chara wouldn't have noticed had they not been looking for it.

"We've grown so distant, darling… how about another heart to heart?" Mettaton pulled his soul out again, but this time it was surrounded by magic boxes so it wasn't shot. It was sending out more lightning bolts again. The human shot some of the boxes so they could get at the soul, but the remaining ones spiralled away and came back reformed. They still got a couple hits in. Surprisingly, when his soul went back into his body with another puff of smoke, Mettaton's arms fell off. The human looked quite shocked and worried. So did Mettaton.

"A… arms? Wh… who needs arms with legs like these?" His eyes had gone dark. "I'm still going to win!" He sent rows upon rows of boxes and bombs, which the human had to shoot through. After a while they reversed and rose up again and they had to make their way back the way they'd came. The human boasted once again.

"The show… must go on!" A mass of bombs and boxes fell from the sky and the human barely got out unscathed. The ratings were at 10000 now. "L… lights… C… camera… Enough of this! This ends now! Do you really believe in yourself that much?" Another one of the indestructible boxes and bombs attacks was sent towards the human, but they managed to get out on top.

"Haha, how inspiring! Well, darling, it's either me or you! But I think we both already know who's going to win. Witness the power of a true star!" The soul came out again, with bombs spinning around it this time, not boxes. It was still shooting lightning everywhere, but now there were also lots of legs popping out of the side of the arena. After a couple shots, the soul popped back into Mettaton's body, and this time his legs fell off. "…then… are YOU the star?"

His soul came out again, but this time it wasn't protected by anything, and it was letting out bolts in small, accurate bursts of three. One set of them hit the human straight in the centre of their soul and they staggered backwards with an "oof" and a growl. Before Mettaton could follow up on the attack and get the advantage, he happened to glance at the ratings. It was lucky he did so while it was still his turn, because the human was not reacting well to that direct hit.

"OOH, LOOK AT THESE RATINGS! THIS IS THE MOST VIEWERS I'VE EVER HAD! WE'VE REACHED THE VIEWER CALL-IN MILESTONE! ONE LUCKY VIEWER WILL HAVE THE CHANCE TO TALK TO ME… BEFORE I LEAVE THE UNDERGROUND FOREVER! LET'S SEE WHO CALLS IN FIRST!" Mettaton was using his stage voice again. It was quite annoying. The speaker on Mettaton's chest started ringing. "HI, YOU'RE ON TV! WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ON THIS, OUR LAST SHOW?"

"….oh… hi… mettaton… i really liked watching your show… my life is pretty boring… but… seeing you on the screen… brought excitement to my life… vicariously. i can't tell, but… i guess this is the last episode…? i'll miss you… mettaton… oh… i didn't mean to talk so long… oh…" The depressed voice cut off. Mettaton looked distraught. Sad music was playing.

"NO, WAIT! WAIT, BL… H… THEY ALREADY HUNG UP. …I'LL TAKE ANOTHER CALLER!" More rings sounded.

"Mettaton, your show made us so happy!" "Mettaton, I don't know what I'll watch without you." "Mettaton, there's a Mettaton-shaped hole in my Mettaton-shaped heart."

"AH… I… I SEE… EVERYONE… THANK YOU SO MUCH. …DARLING. PERHAPS… IT MIGHT BE BETTER IF I STAY HERE FOR A WHILE. HUMANS ALREADY HAVE STARS AND IDOLS, BUT MONSTERS… THEY ONLY HAVE ME. IF I LEFT… THE UNDERGROUND WOULD LOSE ITS SPARK. I'D LEAVE AN ACHING VOID THAT COULD NEVER BE FILLED. SO… I THINK I'LL HAVE TO DELAY MY BIG DEBUT.

BESIDES. YOU'VE PROVEN TO BE VERY STRONG. I WAS WRONG ABOUT YOU. HA HA… IT'S ALL FOR THE BEST, ANYWAY. THE TRUTH IS, THIS FORM'S ENERGY CONSUMPTION IS… INEFFICIENT. IN A FEW MOMENTS I'LL RUN OUT OF BATTERY POWER, AND… WELL. I'LL BE ALRIGHT. KNOCK 'EM DEAD, DARLING. AND EVERYONE… THANK YOU. YOU'VE BEEN A GREAT AUDIENCE!"

The cameras cut out, and a message appeared on the screen: ' **Reminder that this was all just a show, and no one was harmed in the making of it!** ' Chara highly doubted that second part was true.

* * *

After the cameras cut out, the battle ended and the platform lowered itself back to where it started. The doors opened and Alphys rushed in to look at Mettaton. "Why don't you go ahead?" She told Frisk as she replaced MTT's batteries. They nodded and headed up out the door that had been previously blocked by Mettaton. They entered another tiled hall that curved right. After a bit of walking, Alphys caught up with them.

"I… I'm sorry… about not telling you that it was a-all an act, I mean." She apologized.

"Nah, its fine. It was kind of obvious. That last fight was great!" Frisk replied enthusiastically.

"W-well… his limbs weren't supposed to f-fall off like that." Alphys sounded worried. "B-but, I shouldn't have lied in the first place. I-I just wasn't sure… if it was best for you to go to the capital. I can tell that I can't convince you otherwise, though."

"Yeah…" Frisk suddenly felt a lot less enthusiastic.

"O-oh, and… I, uh, know what you, um, are…" Alphys said nervously. Frisk snapped their gaze onto her. She continued. "I-if you want… maybe I could… make a b-blood substititute…?"

"That would be pretty good, actually. Thanks." Frisk said after a moment of thought. They were suddenly very aware of how hungry they were. "Call me when you've got some, please. …Oh, and we never got to watch that anime! We should do that sometime."

Alphys visibly cheered up at that. "Y-yeah! That'd be nice! But, uh, you should probably get going. My partner says there's someone in New Home who's looking forward to meeting you." They'd been walking as they talked, and they'd reached an elevator.

Alphys uttered one last "sorry about lying" before rushing off back down the hallway, leaving Frisk to wonder about who could possibly want to meet them.

 ** _I forgot to add this for the last chapter, but for those of you who don't know what discord is, it's basically like Skype but without video calls and focused more on gaming._**

 ** _Also, woo! Almost at New Home already, and it's only been about a month since I started this! (Granted, I did skip a lot of Snowdin.)_**

 ** _On a happy side note, this story has now reached 5,000 views on FFN (that's this site) and 1,500 on AO3._**


	17. Chapter 17

**_For those of you who commented on the (now deleted) author's note, thank you so, so much for your support! It means a lot to me._**

 ** _To make up for being unable to update for about a week or so, I cranked this out as fast as I could as soon as my computer started working again. It is a little on the short side, but the important events that take place in it should make up for that. Plus it's literally 2:30 AM right now and I'm really tired._**

 ** _Don't tell me I shouldn't have been up this late writing, if I wasn't writing I would've been reading different stories or playing Pokemon Moon._**

 ** _P.S to those of you who asked why I couldn't write on the phone: I don't have a phone that can run apps. Damn you, Nokia!_**

 _Goddamn, this elevator is taking a long time._

 _What did I tell you about swearing? Think of the children!_ The Hunger was right, though. It was such a long elevator ride that Frisk was half asleep by the time they reached the end of it.

 _Hey. Are you gonna get out or not?_ The Hunger asked as Frisk stayed sitting down as the doors of the lift opened.

 _Yeah, okay… Just give me a sec… I dunno why, but I feel like I had terrible sleep…_

 _Probably because of that nightmare._

 _Yeah… Probably…_ Frisk let out a yawn and shuffled around before getting up and exiting the lift, with Hunger mumbling something along the lines of _"it's about time"_ in the back of their mind.

They stopped and looked around, now almost fully awake. The city they were in reminded them of the Ruins, but instead of being all purple, the buildings were covered with a multitude of colours; red, orange, green, yellow, purple, blue, aqua… it was quite stunning, really.

After they'd finished looking around, they continued on the path that started to rise above the city. It was strangely silent for such a large area. There were no monsters to be seen. However, if Frisk strained their ears, with their newfound strong hearing they could hear some muffled sounds coming from a long way down the path. So they kept going.

Eventually, they reached a tunnel-like area with a big house built over it. There was a sign that told Frisk that it was the way to the castle. There were steps built inside of the tunnel that lead down and seemingly onto another path. They walked down them.

There was a long underground tunnel with paint splashed all over it, as if the painters hadn't been too bothered with getting it done neatly. There were some patches that hadn't been painted and were a dull grey colour. Eventually, the corridor took a left turn, just like the one by the exit of the Ruins. However, unlike the Ruins tunnel, this one soon turned right and kept going that way.

The tunnel ended, and Frisk was once again walking through the streets of the city, now back at ground level. The sounds they had just barely made out earlier were getting louder. It sounded like… a celebration? They walked along the empty path for a long while before reaching another right turn.

When they stepped inside of a long hall, they blinked in the sudden light that was coming through the many large, arched, runed windows. Shadows were cast everywhere in the hall, partially because of all the pillars supporting the building. The whole room was a golden yellow colour, except for some of the tiles which were red. _**(Probably, I don't actually know cause I'm colourblind and the wiki didn't say – sincerely Chipendale.)**_

Now, Frisk was faced with a problematic problem. Namely, the sunlight shining through the many windows. They didn't particularly feel like being set on fire, so they had to find a way through the hall without stepping in the rays on light. After surveying the hall for a long while and wracking their brain for a way out of this situation (excluding giving up; Frisk hated giving up), they decided to walk in the shadows that the pillars left behind.

They were doing so well, too, before they reached a set of three pillars all after one another. They got cocky because there seemed to be so much shadow, and didn't look where they were going. Of course, that didn't end well and they managed to set their whole arm on fire.

"FUCK! Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!" They chanted as they waved around their arm and tried to put it out in the shadow of the pillars.

 _Stop swearing, Frisk. Think of the children._

 _SCREW YOU!_

The Hunger probably would've replied with something equally witty and sarcastic, but instead they were interrupted by a soft chuckle.

"you look like you're having fun." Sans said, lounging against a nearby pillar in full sunlight. He was definitely mocking them, something both Frisk and Hunger could agree on. He got up from where he was leaning and walked a bit towards them, putting them on guard. He was now mostly obscured by shadow as well.

" _So you finally made it."_ Sans was using his intimidating voice. _"The end of your journey is at hand. In a few moments, you will meet the royal family. We'll see what happens then. Now. You will be judged. You will be judged for your every action. You will be judged for every EXP you've earned. What's EXP? It's an acronym. It stands for '_ _ **execution points**_ _.' A way of quantifying the pain you have inflicted on others."_

Frisk let out a shocked gasp, saying/thinking in an accusatory voice, _That's not what you told me, when we checked my stats!_

The Hunger was silent as Sans continued. _"When you kill someone, your EXP increases. When you have enough EXP, your LOVE increases. LOVE, too, is an acronym. It stands for '_ _ **Level of Violence**_ _.' A way of measuring someone's capacity to hurt. The more you kill, the easier it comes to distance yourself. The more you distance yourself, the less you will hurt. The more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others."_

Sans closed his eyes. "…but you. you never gained any LOVE. technically. 'course, that doesn't mean you're completely innocent or naïve. just that you kept a certain tenderness in your heart… possibly. no matter the struggles or hardships you faced… you strived to do the right thing… most of the time. you refused to hurt anyone… sort of.

you never gained LOVE, but you gained love. does that make sense? maybe not. just know that paps and undyne would kill me if i hurt you. well, maybe not kill. but you get what i'm saying.

…now. you're about to face the greatest challenge of your entire journey. your actions here… will determine the fate of the entire world. if you do not fight… monsters will go free on the surface through hard work and plenty of effort. but if you… do something else… monsters will remain trapped underground. what will you do?

…well, if i were you, i would have thrown in the towel by now. but you didn't get this far by giving up, did you? (even though you don't really have a good reason to keep going…) that's right. you have something called 'determination.' so as long as you hold on… so as long as you do what's in your heart… i believe you can do the right thing.

alright. i'm counting on you, kid. good luck." Sans winked and walked back further into the shadows, clearly thinking it looked like he'd disappeared. (It would've worked a lot better if Frisk couldn't see perfectly in the shadows with their night vision.)

They snorted in amusement at the fact that he didn't know his cheap spooky parlour tricks didn't work on them, and started to move on before freezing and sniffing the air. It smelled like a…

* * *

Chara quietly slipped away from the annoyingly loud party that the monsters were having in the throne room of the castle to celebrate the anniversary of their arrival. They weren't enjoying themselves for a multitude of reasons, but there were two main ones; they didn't think it was something worth celebrating, and there were too many people. The only reason they'd stayed for a while already was because they had to do a short speech and because there was cake.

The cake was all gone, though, and they'd eaten enough of the other foods that they liked, so they had no good reason to stay. _Besides, the new human should be being judged by now…_

As they moved out of the throne room and towards the Final Corridor (or, as Chara liked to call it, the Judgement Hall), the sounds of partying slowly decreased until they weren't too loud. After a while they were even able to hear a voice echoing down the long corridor that was the Judgement Hall and coming out the other side, where Chara was. Something about the new human being technically innocent? It was probably easier to understand with context.

The voice stopped and Chara headed closer, trying to see if they could hear anything more or if the judgement was over. After listening for a while and hearing nothing they decided fuck it, why not go in?

And that is how they ended up staring at the person they definitely didn't have a crush on as they sniffed the air and then looked Chara straight in the eyes, with a wicked grin splitting their face open as they murmured " _Human._ " and transformed into a horrifying(ly hot) beast.

* * *

 **FRISK – VAMPIRIC BEAST FORM – ATK 420 DEF 69.**

 **This is not the time for jokes.**

 **Literally eats people like you for breakfast.**

* * *

 _ **R.I.P Chara. Their last thoughts: "Oh wow they look super muscly like this OH WAIT THEY'RE KILLING ME"**_

 _ **(Not actually lol)**_

 _ **(Okay I'm going to bed now bye)**_


	18. Chapter 18

_**IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ**_

 _ **Hey, so...**_

 ** _There may or may not be pretty gory descriptions in this chapter. You thought the bit with Papyrus was bad? I didn't, but that's beside the point._**

 _ **I'll put in notes to show what to skip if you don't like that kind of thing.**_

* * *

 _ **WARNING; THIS IS THE START OF WHERE YOU SHOULD SKIP IF YOU DON'T LIKE GORE AND STUFF. Yes, I know it's right at the start and that you'll probably miss important plot points. I'll summarise it when it's over.**_

Chara froze for an instant, before turning and running, but their pause had cost them precious time, as well as their life. What they thought would be the last thing they felt was claws digging into their guts and ripping through their insides, spraying blood and gore everywhere before they were torn into two pieces.

It was excruciatingly painful, but before they could scream with their dying breath, they were back staring at the beast as it started breathing heavily. It looked like it'd dash for them again(?) soon. Of course, after that horrifying ordeal they had to take a moment to recover, even though the pain had quickly faded away and they seemed to be unharmed.

It would've been better if they had thought about what had happened after they were out of the situation they'd got themselves into, though, as the beast had also recovered and had appeared right in front of Chara, as if out of thin air with a loud cracking noise as they broke the sound barrier by going so fast. They swiped at Chara again with their claws that were the size of Chara's head, which they narrowly dodged as their rather-lacking survival instincts kicked in.

Chara pulled their trusty gardening knife out of wherever they kept it and slashed back at the beast, which growled in mild annoyance as the blade broke against its skin before trying to take a bite out of Chara, who moved out of the way just in time, still shocked about the whole situation with the fact that their beloved knife was now broken suddenly put on top of that. All in all, it wasn't a great anniversary.

All of their shocked-ness wasn't obviously particularly good for their survival factor, and the beast literally ate their arm. This time Chara got to enjoy the experience of watching the beast swallow their recently deceased right arm while their stub sprayed blood everywhere before the time turned back again. (They weren't actually sure if that was what was happening, but considering it had happened a bunch recently already they thought it was possible. Actually, they didn't really think anything to do with that at the time because right then they had more pressing matters.) They were also vaguely aware of horrified screams coming from somewhere… oh wait, it was coming from them.

Of course, it was all reversed soon so their arm was back where it was supposed to be and their screams were cut off given the fact that their mouth was closed. The beast was now grabbing at its own head before glaring back up at Chara and moving forward, before stopping and jerking around. It let out a huge growl and leapt at them again, but by then Chara had recovered properly and had sent a wave of their practised red magic at it while pulling out its soul and initiating a Fight (although the actual battle had started a while ago).

When it let out a more human-sounding cry of pain, Chara dully registered that its soul was red like theirs. They didn't have time to think on that before the beast fell to the floor, killed mid-leap. It seemed they were a lot weaker when it came to magic.

* * *

Frisk turned back time again, to when they'd first looked the human in the eye. The blood they'd swallowed along with the arm had just made them crave it more. They couldn't stop themselves, despite trying very hard to. It was like they were trapped in the back of their mind and forced to watch as their body mauled and killed the human multiple times, without any control, except for their time powers. They had perfect control of those, which was a relief. However, that last time had been automatic in reaction to their death. They had never imagined the human to be that strong with magic!

But, even though they never would've thought they'd say this (or think it), it was quite a relief to have died; first because now they knew the human could hold them off until they hopefully turned back to normal, and second because they actually seemed to gain more control of their body when they died. Instead of dashing forward immediately, or almost immediately, this time they checked the human's stats first.

* * *

 **CHARA – HUMAN FORM – ATK 99 DEF 99**

 **Stronger than they look. They aren't exactly human, sometimes.**

 **Likes their steak well done. Fish isn't bad, either.**

* * *

Because The Hunger wasn't around to read it for them, they felt the information kind of… scroll through their mind. They suddenly wondered _why_ Hunger wasn't around, but they didn't have time to dwell on it, as they felt their soul being pulled out again. They managed to dodge the supposedly-not-human's first attack, but suddenly dropped to the ground as their soul turned blue. They didn't stay on the ground for long, though, and were floating about a metre in the air when they remembered that Sans was still hiding in the shadows behind them.

"i'm going to stop you right there, buddy." He said, while Frisk felt relieved that he'd immobilised them and also confused about why he'd not done it earlier. They were sure he'd have an answer as soon as they had regained the ability to ask him what they were thinking. Currently, they were wriggling around and trying to escape in an animalistic fear. At least they'd turned back into their human form by that point, but they still didn't have much control over their body.

"man, i really thought you'd have better control of yourself. i guess you must be pretty hungry by now, though." Sans shook his head in disappointment as all Frisk did was hiss at him. "didn't you hear? alphys was working on a blood substitute for you."

"Are you just going to have a one-sided conversation with that… _thing_ and ignore me completely?" The human who Frisk had tried (and succeeded, twice) to kill said indignantly with a crazed tone in their voice. Frisk wouldn't blame them if they went mad after this, although they would feel incredibly guilty about it and probably try and kill themselves again.

"sorry, your highness. i can't imagine what it would've felt like going through all of that, but i know how horrifying it was to watch, and that wasn't any fun at all. i'll be taking my pal here down to the dungeon now." Sans sounded genuinely apologetic.

"Why didn't you help sooner?" Frisk would've loved to hear the answer to that as well, but their primal instincts kicked in as soon as Sans said "dungeon" and they used a power they didn't know they had to disappear in a puff of smoke.

Of course, they hadn't actually disappeared, per se; they'd turned into a bat and flown away with the smoke as a distraction. They then watched from behind a pillar as the human started hyperventilating and looking around, frightened. They felt incredibly bad for being the person that caused that, but they were glad that they weren't on their way to a dungeon, and that they'd almost completely regained control over their body, enough to stop their urges to fly up to the… pretty human and… drink all of their… delicious blood…

 _Okay, I think I should leave now…_ Frisk decided.

 _Yeah, that's a pretty good idea._ The Hunger said out of nowhere.

 _Where were you?!_

 _Um, trying to ignore everything._

 _Well, that was very helpful, wasn't it?_ The Hunger was about to reply to Frisk's scathing comment, but was distracted when Frisk took off and tried to fly away in the shadows. They failed to go unseen, and Sans dragged them down to the floor with his blue magic while they let out a little squeak.

The human whirled around when they saw the glow of the magic in their peripheral vision and heard the squeak, but calmed down when all they saw was a bat. They moved closer and patted Frisk on the head.

"Hey, little buddy. How'd you get here? Did you fly in from where the light's coming in? Were you not able to get out because of the barrier?" They crooned. Clearly, they liked bats. As Frisk nuzzled their head into their hand, the human turned to Sans and said, "Let it up already, jeez. It's just a poor little bat."

Sans was looking them in the eyes with them staring back at his one glowing eye as they nuzzled into the human. He clearly knew exactly what they were, but for some reason he shrugged and released them from his magic. He was still keeping an eye on them, however, especially as they flew up to the human's shoulder and sat down right next to their neck.

Instead of letting the human know that the beast that had killed them twice was sitting on their shoulder, he said, "i wasn't aware that you liked bats, your highness."

What on earth was he playing at? Did he think that because they hadn't eaten the human already that they wouldn't at all? That would be incredibly stupid of him, if he did. And he didn't seem like a stupid person at all.

Either way, Sans and the human continued down the hall with Frisk on the human's shoulder as they discussed what had just happened.

"What'll we tell mum and dad?" The human asked worriedly. "They'll want to know where the new 'human' is."

"i'll deal with it. trust me." Was all that Sans said in reply. He may have been about to add more, but no one would ever know, since at that moment a goat monster thing came running into the hall yelling "I finally found you, Chara!"

The human, presumably named Chara, sighed and put a hand on their face (probably to hide their small smile, Frisk thought) and replied with. "Asriel, this may come as a shock to you, but when someone leaves quietly at a party they generally don't want to be found. Although if you had to come it would've been better if you'd come a little earlier."

The goat monster, Asriel apparently, pouted a bit before saying, "Chara, you can't just leave your own party! And stop treating me like I'm still a kid!" Sans snorted at that while Chara let out a snicker, and Asriel didn't look too amused when he added, "That wasn't intentional."

Probably to distract them from his unintentional pun, Asriel asked, "Where'd you get that bat, Chara?"

"Oh, this little guy?" Chara patted Frisk on their head and they let out a soft sound of contentment. _(This feels great!)_ "I just found them flying around the Judgement Hall. I think they must've come in through the barrier where the light's coming from and ended up stuck in here, like us."

"Aww, that's sad. At least you have another friend!" Asriel said positively.

"Mm. Well, do I have to go back to the party or can I go home?" Chara asked.

Asriel sighed. "Mum says that you have to come back to say goodbye to everyone but after that you can leave."

"Awesome. Thanks Azzy." Chara ruffled the goat's head fur before heading off towards the exit of the hall, with Asriel and Sans following. Frisk looked at their surroundings while they took a ride on Chara's shoulders.

The area on the other side of the hall looked about the same as the area they'd already come through, with paint all over everything. There was a short corridor before they reached a large structure that was covered in vines and had red leaves in front of the big entranceway instead of a doormat. There was a sign on the wall next to the entrance that read 'Throne room.' There was also a much more discreet path further along past what seemed to be the castle Frisk had seen way back in Waterfall, but no one even looked at it as they walked inside.

If Frisk were still in their human form, they would've let out a gasp as they entered the absolutely massive throne room. It looked like the entire castle that they'd seen was actually just this huge room, which had every possible surface covered in all kinds of plants (mostly ones that lived underground, though.) Actually, not all the surfaces were covered in plants. There were ten thrones of varying sizes lined up in the centre of the area, but Frisk couldn't get too good a look at them because of all the monster people who were also in the room. It seemed this was where all the people in the city had congregated. It was too loud for Frisk's sensitive little bat ears, and they huddled into Chara's shirt to block out some of the noise.

* * *

Chara patted the poor cute little bat as it curled up because of the noise, before heading over to where they could see Toriel and Asgore towering over most of the monsters with Asriel and Sans following behind them and trying to not get separated in the crowd. When they arrived at their destination, they waited while their adopted parents finished the conversation they were having before letting them know of their prescence.

"Ah, Chara! Asriel found you, I see?" Asgore rumbled and looked down at Chara.

"Yeah, dad. I'm going to go around and say bye to everyone else, but then I'll be heading home. Do you know where the others are?" Chara asked.

"I think most of your siblings are around the thrones, but some of them went into the sunroom, dear. Oh, and Chuck is serving the food." Toriel replied.

"Alright, thanks mum. I'll go and see them now. Bye." Chara waved a halfhearted goodbye at their parents and headed off towards the thrones, with Sans staying back with the king and queen and Asriel going to talk to more people.

"Not long now, little buddy. We'll be out of here soon." Chara said to their bat as they manoeuvred through the crowd towards the thrones. They soon caught sight of Betty and John conversing with a bunch of monsters, and the two of them turned to Chara as soon as they were finished.

"Hey, Chara. What're you here for?" John asked bluntly while Betty shifted her feet nervously at the sight of Chara.

"Mum says I have to say goodbye to everyone before I leave for home. So see you later." Chara was already walking away by the end of the sentence and towards where they could see another one of their siblings, Aaren, who had their faded red ribbon tied around one arm for some reason. The rest of their clothes were all aqua coloured.

Chara stood by as Aaren talked for a loooooong time to some monsters. They didn't understand why Aaren seemed to think everyone was as patient as they were! Eventually, long after Chara had started getting fidgety, Aaren turned around and addressed them.

"Hey Chara. Was there something on your mind?" They asked politely.

"Not really." _Well, there is, but you'd think I was crazy if I told you._ "Mum said I had to say goodbye to everyone before I head home. So I was just going to say bye."

"Alright. Bye then." Aaren smiled a bit, before adding, "Is that a bat on your shoulder?"

"Yeah, I found it flying around. I think it must've flown in through the barrier or something." The bat perked its head up, as if it knew it was being talked about.

"Can I pet it?"

"Sure, go ahead." Aaren moved their hand over to it, but it shimmied away with a squeak. Chara smirked slightly. "I guess it only likes me. Too bad."

They left Aaren looking disappointed and headed off to the small sunroom, which was a room behind the throne room that had a ray of light shining down in it. It was often used as a break area at parties like this. Chara found two more of their siblings there; Macy with her oversized cowboy hat and fake gun, as well as Charlie with her tutu and ballet shoes. (Chara was pretty sure that Charlie was a girl just then, since they usually wore their ballet clothes when they felt like a girl and their normal clothes when they felt like a boy.)

"Hey Charlie. Hey Macy." Chara greeted the two of them as they turned to face Chara, while they'd previously been gazing up at where the sunlight was coming from.

"Hey Chara. Is that a bat on your shoulder?" Charlie asked. Chara imagined it'd get to be a common question.

"No, it's a dragon. Of course it's a bat." They replied sarcastically.

"All right, all right. I just haven't seen a bat in ages." Charlie said, putting their hands up in surrender.

"Where'd you get it?" Macy asked.

"I found it flying around. Thought it must've been lost."

"Cool." Macy and Charlie replied at the same time. Then they turned to each other and giggled. Chara rolled their eyes and tried to get rid of the small smile they'd gained.

"Anyway, I'm heading home soon. See you later." Chara waved goodbye before heading further along the passage to where the barrier was, and also where they'd built some castle kitchens a while back.

At the moment there weren't many people in the kitchens, seeing as the celebration was close to being over and all the food had been made already. The only people there were the people that were restocking the empty plates with more food and Chuck, who ruled over the kitchen with an iron fist (when Toriel wasn't around to rule it herself) and was currently supervising everything.

"Chara! How nice of you to drop in!" Chuck greeted them with a smile. "I haven't seen you for most of the celebration, I've been stuck in here the whole time."

"You can't call it being stuck when you're staying here willingly." Chara replied. Chuck laughed and ruffled their hair, which they grumbled about. He knew they didn't like it when he did that! Just because he's the only one of their siblings that's older than them doesn't give him special privileges!

"Hey, what's that on your shoulder?" Chuck asked after he'd finished laughing and messing with their hair, which they were now trying to fix. He put his burnt pan down while he was waiting for their response. (They weren't sure why he was holding it anyway; it wasn't like he was cooking anything.)

"It's a bat, obviously." Chuck looked at it, conflicted. "I hope you don't mind?"

(They didn't care whether he minded or not.)

"Well, as long as it doesn't eat anything it isn't offered, you can keep it in here."

"All right. That seems fair." Chara agreed, before walking over to one of the fanciest pieces of food and putting their bat down next to it. They noticed Chuck's annoyed look and said, "What? I don't know when the last time it ate was. It's only right to feed it."

(They were mainly doing it to annoy him, but they had planned on getting the bat food sooner or later anyway.)

The bat took a look at the piece of what seemed to be the fancy soup that Chara'd heard Chuck and their mum discussing how to make properly, called something like consommé. It then drank all of it, took one look at Chuck's half-astonished, half-furious face before flying back onto Chara's shoulder.

They decided it'd be a good time to leave, so with a call of "See you at home!" they exited the kitchen with the small amount of monsters that had been in there with them watching with shocked expressions.

They moved quickly back towards the throne room, while praising their pet bat for its amazing drinking skills and for annoying Chuck after he'd annoyed them. Macy and Charlie asked them why they looked so pleased when they went back past the sunroom, but Chara just told them to go and check on Chuck before entering the crowd in the throne room and making their way through there to the exit without checking on anyone else.

When they got out of the loud and crowded throne room, they let out a sigh of relief. "I dunno about you, little friend, but I really don't like people, so I'm glad to be out of there." As they moved forward, they looked around the area and continued talking to the bat. "Believe it or not, this place used to be completely grey. No colour at all. Well, maybe black and white, but those aren't really colours. But now, you can't even tell.

One day, mum said 'Gorey (that's dad), this place is much too dreary! We must brighten it up! Children, get your favourite colour of paint, we're going to paint everything.' That was the same day that mum decided to expand our house, since there wasn't enough space for ten people. The tunnel leading here used to be in our house, too, but mum said that wasn't very convenient for everyone so we moved our house to be above the tunnel."

Chara wasn't sure why they were talking to the bat in the first place, but it did make them feel better as they walked through the Judgement Hall. They still couldn't resist casting nervous glances all around the area. The bat was a good listener, however. It almost seemed to be actually sentient. Maybe it was a monster bat? …No, it would've let them know if it was, or just flown off.

Either way, it was probably the only reason they were able to walk through the hall alone without breaking down in fear. Or rather, alone except for their bat. Once they made it out the other side, they slowed their pace down from the higher speed they'd made it during the corridor to walk through the colourful empty city.

Eventually they reached the tunnel, and at the end of that, their house. They unlocked the door with a key pulled out of their trouser pocket and walked up the steps that were just inside, until they got to the large living room that contained their two large sofas and the TV, among other things. They headed down the hall that was connected to the living room, past the kitchen and a bunch of other doors that had labels on them until they arrived at the one at the end of the corridor, labelled 'Chara.'

They pushed the door open and immediately moved over to the bed, taking their bat off of their shoulder and putting it down before slumping onto their bed and falling asleep almost instantly. It had been a bad day for them, and they just had to hope that they wouldn't have nightmares.

* * *

Frisk looked around the room they'd ended up in from where they'd been put down. They still hadn't figured out how to turn back into a human, but they didn't really mind this form anyway. There was a desk, which they were sitting on, with a computer, some notebooks, a hairbrush and some other junk on it. There was also a bookshelf, but they couldn't see most of the books that were on it because the bed was in the way. The only other things that were in the room other than those two big features (three including the bed) were a wardrobe and a bin next to the desk. It was a rather small room.

If they could've shrugged they would have done so before flying up to the doorframe, where the door was still open, and hanging upside down to try and get some sleep.

 _ **I'm sure everything will be fine from now on.**_


	19. Chapter 19

_**I'm so sorry this chapter took ages, at first I was just being lazy (it happens every year around Christmas; I just sit around and do literally nothing but eat and sleep), but then my computer broke again for about a week so I was unable to write.**_

 _ **I've barely looked back at what I've been writing in this chapter at all, so it may be weird. In a good way, hopefully.**_

 _ **Also, another thing to mention is that one of my friends and myself were testing that Discord link, and for some reason it wasn't working? I tried fixing it, but I have no idea whether it works now or not. Sorry about that as well.**_

 _ **Anyway, on to the chapter!**_

"Chara! Chara! Get up, it's time for- ARGH!" Asriel cried out in pain as their new pet bat bit him on the nose. Served him right for barging into their room at whatever ungodly hour it was and yelling at them.

The aforementioned bat flew back to hang on Chara's closet where they'd been sleeping as Chara themselves turned to Asriel and murmured "Ughhh… Come back when it's not so early, Azzie…"

They pulled their covers closer on them as Asriel left the room clutching his sore nose. They'd probably feel bad about it later, but they didn't just then. They were too busy trying to get back to sleep.

* * *

A couple hours later Chara deemed it the right time to get up. By then it was around midday. Their bat, however, seemed to disagree. Of course; it was a nocturnal creature! Well, whatever. It could stay in their room for the rest of the day anyway.

They pulled on their usual attire and headed to the bathroom (that had been specially installed in the house for the humans since monsters didn't use bathrooms) to take a shower before brushing their hair and, finally, heading into the living room.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHARA!" They would've jumped back in surprise if it weren't for the fact that this happened every year. Even if it didn't, the lack of noise and people running around despite the fact that their siblings were staying over would've made them suspicious anyway. Instead of being surprised, they were more annoyed by the unnecessary noise. (They were clearly trying to repress a smile, though.)

"My child, your presents are on the table. But before you open them there is a small matter to discuss." Toriel looked quite serious.

"What seems to be the problem?" Chara asked curiously.

"This morning, Asriel came to your father and I claiming that your new pet bat had bitten him on the nose. Now, we know that you do not like to be disturbed in the early morning, and we told Asriel to not wake you again, but that does not excuse you for letting your pet attack him." Before Chara could reply, Toriel added. "And Chuck has told us that your bat drank all of the consommé we made last night, as well."

"Well it wasn't as if I could've stopped it if had wanted to, I was half asleep because it was really early." Chara grumbled. "And it was hungry last night, I had only just found it and I don't think it had eaten in a while."

"We know that, what we're asking is that you try to train it so that it doesn't happen again." Asgore cut in. He too looked quite serious. Mum must have put him up to it.

"Pfft, as if I could train a bat. If you want it to be trained that bad, you should try yourself." They immediately regretted their words. They had gotten a bit cocky as it was their birthday and all.

"My child, I do not like your tone of voice!" Toriel glared at Chara. Asgore, as well as all of their siblings, took a step back. "You WILL teach that bat some manners!"

"Ugh! FINE!" Chara grabbed the biggest present from the table and stormed back to their room. The others let them go. Toriel already looked remorseful for her outburst, but Chara didn't see that. They were too busy muttering about how this happened every year. (It's pretty much true; almost every year on their birthday they get a bit arrogant and say something mean, which leads to an argument.)

They slammed the door of their room, waking up their bat, which flew around squeaking for a bit before calming down. (Chara didn't know this at the time, but Frisk had briefly forgotten that they were a bat in the shock of being woken up.)

"Sorry, little buddy." Chara said, patting their bat on the head as it flew over to land on their arm. A wicked grin grew over their face as they put down the big present on their bed. "Say… I have a couple presents left on the table in the living room. I don't suppose you could go and fetch them for me?"

The bat regarded them with its head tilted to the side for a second, before shrugging (don't ask me how) and nodding. Their grin grew wider as they added, "Make sure you bite at least one of the people in there too, okay?"

This time the bat took a bit longer to decide, but eventually nodded again. Chara walked over to the door and opened it to let the bat fly out of the room.

Revenge is sweet.

* * *

Frisk silently flew along the corridor towards the main room. At first they'd been hesitant about biting someone, but they thought that they kind of owed Chara for all of the murdering business, and also it'd probably pretty funny as well.

They stayed close to the ceiling as they entered the room. So far all of the people inside had yet to notice them, as they were all milling around in the same area discussing what to do about Frisk themselves, although they still thought they were an ordinary pet bat. How wrong they were.

They located the table with presents on it, swooped down, picked one of them up, and flew off the way they came. They dropped the present on Chara's bed and headed back to get another one. This continued until there was only one left. As they entered the room for the last time, one of the humans finally noticed something was up.

The cook, who Frisk believed to be called Chuck or something, looked at the table and asked, "Hey, what happened to all the presents?"

The rest of the family turned around to look at the table as well. "I don't knooo-oooh. Um, Chuck. You might want to look up." The cowboy-looking human, Macy they thought, said while everyone else turned back to look at Chuck as well.

"What is it, is there-" Chuck looked up and saw Frisk, who had moved to be hovering right above his head. While his face was upturned they took the opportunity to drop onto it and stare into his eyes. He froze.

After a couple of uncomfortable (for everyone except Frisk, who was having lots of fun) seconds, they moved down slightly, bit the human's nose, and flew off to grab the last present before anyone could catch them.

* * *

"THAT BLOODY BAT!" Chuck yelled, clutching his nose as he watched the bat fly off down the corridor with the last present. Toriel didn't even remember to say "language."

They all heard Chara laughing in their room.

* * *

"Well, today was fun." Chara commented as they flopped down onto their bed. Their bat squeaked in what they assumed to be agreement as it flew over to their desk and sat down.

After the shaky start to the day, Toriel had asked Chara to apologise to Chuck, which they had done without argument as they were already feeling kind of bad about what they'd asked their bat to do. Then they opened all of their presents, played a couple games, some on their own and some with their siblings, and finally they had some birthday dinner and cake. All in all, it was completely useless to distract them from the traumatizing experience that was the anniversary of their fall.

Chara sighed, running their hands through their hair. They doubted that they'd ever completely recover mentally from the whole ordeal. They hoped that they'd be less confused over time, however. Their confusion stemmed, of course, from the fact that they had just yesterday been murdered twice, and yet were still alive. They had no idea what was causing the time repetitions, but suspected it probably had a lot to do with the new beast-human…

…The beast-human…

They felt so conflicted when they thought of that human. It was just adding on to the confusion. On the one hand, they were the reason Chara was traumatized in the first place.

…but on the other hand, they were really hot.

 _Goddamnit, is that the best counter argument I can think of against being murdered? Ugh, that's really shallow!_ Chara thought to themselves furiously. _Remember the top rules of life; love hurts and never trust anyone._

They knew that wasn't true, but they were too angry at themselves at the time to acknowledge it. Maybe they used to believe it when they first fell, but they'd lived with the Dreemurrs (and after time, the other adopted humans) for six years and one day exactly, and if that didn't cause them to give up on all of their old beliefs, nothing would.

* * *

While Chara had been raging at an inner turmoil on their bed, Frisk had been watching the proceedings worriedly. After some thought, they flew over and landed next to Chara and nudged them with their wing-hand thing. Chara snapped their head around to look at Frisk with a shocked look on their face. They obviously hadn't heard or seen them coming over.

"Oh, it's just you." They sounded immensely relieved and Frisk had to wonder what it was that they'd been thinking about. They probably looked quite worried (for a bat), because Chara added, "Sorry, didn't mean to worry you. I was just thinking about… yesterday."

Frisk flinched visibly, but luckily Chara didn't seem to notice. If they did, they showed no sign of it as they just continued talking. "Well, at least I got one good thing out of that whole disaster." Chara was now stroking their head and it felt _amazing_. They'd unconsciously started purring, except bats can't purr (or maybe they can, do I look like an expert to you?) so they made bat noises instead.

A smile came to Chara's face as they heard Frisk purring/making bat noises, and they stroked them a bit more before stopping. Frisk looked up at them with puppy dog eyes and Chara faked an annoyed sigh before starting again. While they were doing so, they said, "I don't know how to feel about all of this anymore."

Frisk detached themselves from the _absolutely awesome at stroking hand, I bet it tastes great as well… Wait, no, no! God, not the hungry thoughts again! Focus…_

Uh, where were they? Oh yeah, they had detached themselves from the hand so that they could listen to Chara without being distracted. Chara continued talking. "I mean, believe it or not, I actually thought that the human would be nice. That was stupid of me, huh? Humans are _never_ nice."

They sounded very bitter. Frisk whimpered (I don't know if bats can do that either but whatever) and looked down in guilt. This was all their fault. If they'd been able to control themselves better, then they wouldn't be having this one-sided conversation. They might even be friends with Chara, and the rest of the royal family. Plus they wouldn't be stuck as a bat. Hopefully they'd be able to figure out how to turn back soon. Doubly hopefully they didn't accidentally do it at an awkward time.

"I guess I let my guard down; which I hardly ever do, for obvious reasons. It did not end well this time." Chara kept going. They seemed to need to talk to someone about everything, even if they thought they were just talking to a bat. Their last comment had intrigued Frisk, and they tilted their head and let out an inquisitive squeak.

"Right, you don't remember… Forget I said anything." Could Chara also remember the time resets…? Also, are they going mad…? They are talking to a bat and assuming responses… _Correctly_ assuming responses, actually, which is quite surprising, but still. They shook themselves out of their thoughts in time to hear Chara add, "I don't usually let my guard down so quickly; hell, it took me at least a couple of years to warm up to every one of the other humans. I was blinded by my stupid celebrity crush, I think."

Frisk snapped their head up at that. If a bat could say "What?!" in a very shocked and embarrassed voice, that would've happened. As it was, they just squeaked again.

"I know, I know. I don't usually crush on anyone. But that beast-human… they're really hot. And when they're all beast-y, they're all muscly as well…"

… _Are they drooling?_ Frisk thought. Their own mind was incredibly conflicted as well now.

 _Yeah, they've definitely gone mad._ The Hunger piped in.

 _Where have you been all day?_ They asked indignantly as Chara stared off into space.

 _Well, you may be an insomniac, but I prefer to get some sleep. And in case you haven't noticed, this form sleeps at different times to what we're used to._ Hunger replied with perfect logic.

Frisk admitted that with a mind-grunt, before asking, _So, uh… What should we do with Chara?_

 _I've got no idea. Maybe nudge them a bit, see if they snap out of it._ Frisk moved to do so and Hunger added, _This whole thing's hilarious, by the way._

* * *

Chara shook off their, uh, _interesting_ thoughts as their bat nudged them. They felt their face flush as they wiped the drool of the corner of their mouth. They cleared their throat and got up off of their bed, and moved to their wardrobe.

"I, uh… I'm going to go to bed now…" Chara told their bat in an embarrassed voice, before wondering _why_ they were embarrassed. And also why they'd been talking to their bat like it was sentient for a while now.

 _Well, to be fair, it does exhibit many behaviours of a sentient being…_ They thought, defending themselves in their mind as they grabbed their pyjamas. They pulled off their normal clothes and put on the pyjamas they'd just picked up, turned the light off, walked over to their bed, and lay down.

As they dozed off, a thought came to mind, and without realising it, they murmured it out loud.

"I wonder why they seemed like they couldn't control themselves…"

* * *

Frisk heard it, and had an idea.


	20. Chapter 20

_**So, this took a bit longer than I had expected (although not as long as the last one, sorry about that again) but I think I had an excusable reason to take some time off of writing this time, seeing as I ate a Carolina Reaper about a week ago. And I only regretted it for about ten minutes, which was the amount of time my body felt like it was on fire.**_

 _ **Fun!**_

 _ **Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter. It was meant to be more angsty than it turned out, but I guess I'll just spring all of it on everyone when you least expect it.**_

* * *

 _What in the world are you doing?_ The Hunger asked as Frisk dragged a piece of paper and a pencil onto Chara's desk.

 _Shh, I'm concentrating._

* * *

As the night wore on, with Frisk doing whatever the hell they were doing with the paper and pencil, they got increasingly hungry. They occasionally shot a look over at Chara, who was sleeping obliviously. Over time, the occasional glances turned into long stares at the part of Chara's neck that had been revealed when they'd shifted a bit. Eventually, they realized that they were focusing more on recalling the delicious taste of the only blood they'd ever drank than on their secret project. It didn't help that they'd technically never eaten because of all the time stuff, which meant they were still ravenous.

Suddenly, they were sitting next to Chara's exposed neck. This time it was Frisk who was drooling. Just as they were about to sink their sharp vampire bat teeth into their delicious piece of meat, the aforementioned meal started stirring in their sleep. Frisk froze.

Chara started twisting around restlessly and Frisk was forced to hastily move out of the way. They watched from a safe distance as Chara started whimpering in their sleep and muttering "No!" over and over, steadily increasing in volume.

Correctly assuming it was entirely their fault, Frisk flew back over to Chara. Their hunger had seemingly vanished for the time being, probably due to the guilt. They cuddled up close to Chara, which seemed to calm them down. A hand came down to stroke Frisk's head and they purred (which I've heard bats can actually do, #batfacts) at the sensation.

After a while Chara calmed down completely and stopped stroking Frisk. By this point Frisk was tired as well, but they remembered that they still had a task to complete, and hopped out of the warm arms that they'd been lying in to finish what they'd started earlier, this time without getting distracted by the prospect of warm and juicy blood.

…Hopefully.

* * *

When Chara woke up, they had a horrible headache and their neck felt quite sore for some reason. They also saw a piece of paper with weird things drawn all over it on their desk. Strangely, their bat was nowhere to be seen, and it also seemed as if their door had been left open during the night. Either that or one of their siblings had come in and stole something while they were sleeping. They bet it was the second option.

As they crossed their room to close the door, they groaned and staggered a bit. They really didn't feel well. Maybe they'd caught something. After they'd shut the door, they moved back over to their desk, where they were about to take a better look at the drawing when they rubbed the bit of their neck where it was sore, and found that it was also… sticky? And there were some scabs that they hadn't noticed before? They were very confused, and then embarrassed as they started to recall the night before.

 _Maybe that's the reason my bat isn't around currently._ As soon as they had the thought, they dismissed it as crazy, and started worrying about the fact that they seemed to be doing some very strange things recently. To get their mind off of everything, they picked up the weird paper from their desk.

It did not help them relax at all.

It was some sort of diagram, with "CONTROL" written in capital letters at the top. Right underneath it, "FULL" was written. There was a badly drawn stick figure on one side of the paper, and on the other… a drawing of the beast. Despite the fact that it was badly drawn as well, it still sent shivers down Chara's spine.

There was one word written under each picture. Under the stick figure "YES" was written and under the beast "SOMETIMES" was written. With an increasing feeling of dread, Chara looked lower down the paper.

"HUNGRY" was written down there. Under it were more bad pictures. Under the second stick figure it said "SOMETIMES," and under the second beast it said "NO."

They stood there staring at the paper for a long time.

The first thought that came to them after they'd unfrozen was; _How did they hear what I said last night? I didn't even hear what I said last night!_

They then spent the next five minutes pacing in their room and running their hands through their hair, before grabbing the paper up again and staring at it for another minute. While doing so, they noticed that there was something on the other side.

 _What's this…?_ Chara thought as they turned the paper around.

* * *

Frisk was almost sobbing with guilt and horror at their own actions as they hurried away from the Royal Family's house. They had no idea where they were going; they just wanted to get away from what they'd done.

They couldn't believe they'd given in to their desires and done something so horrible to the human who'd looked after them while they were a bat! Chara didn't deserve that, especially after what had happened in the Last Corridor!

Although… their blood had tasted just as great as Frisk had remembered…

 _No! No more thoughts like that! I'll just go… uh, go…_ Frisk realised that they had nowhere to go as they too were stuck in the underground until either the barrier broke or they starved to death. However if it went the same way as the last (and only, so far) time they'd died, they'd just be automatically wound back in time. As such, they would inevitably meet Chara again.

As Frisk glumly realised that they had pretty much no options, they also realised that they'd wandered to the last place they wanted to be; the Judgement Hall.

If they hadn't already frozen just in front of where the big windows started, they would have when they heard a voice come from behind one of the pillars, and saw Sans step out while he was talking.

"i gotta admit, this is the last place i'd expect to find you, kid." He shrugged and added, "i guess there isn't any light in here at the moment, though. so that's good for you."

He was right. The hall was very dark, as it seemed the light only came in through the windows in the afternoon.

"I didn't mean to be here." Frisk replied warily. "I was just… going for a walk."

"right. but don't you need legs to walk?" Sans replied amusedly.

"I have legs, what are you-" Frisk stopped and looked down at their very much human-like body, then repeated, "I have legs. I… I can talk. What the fuck?"

"woah. language, kiddo." Frisk paid him no attention and was instead trying to figure out how they'd managed to turn back to normal without noticing. "anyway, why _are_ you here?"

They stopped inspecting themselves to answer the question. "I don't know, I was thinking a lot and I ended up here. Why are _you_ here?"

"bud, it's my _job_ to be here."

Frisk let out a confused "What?" and Sans shook his head disappointedly.

"you aren't really the brightest person, are you?" He told them, with the Hunger agreeing in Frisk's head. They glared at him indignantly.

"I thought you were a sentry. Do you also guard this hall?" They replied stiffly.

"i'm not a sentry. that's just a cover up for my real jobs, which are being the judge and also being a part time scientist." Sans bluntly told them. Frisk blinked in shock.

"Why would you just tell me that?" They questioned him.

"why not? you're practically harmless." Frisk spluttered as they tried to answer him.

"No, I am most definitely NOT! I'm probably the most dangerous person in the underground! And I can't even control myself half the time!" Their outburst subsided and they looked away embarrassedly. After a couple seconds they looked back at Sans and asked, "Is that why you left me with Chara? Because you thought I was harmless? Believe me when I say that didn't work out well."

Sans suddenly lost his carefree demeanour. "shit. what did you do? i promised the king 'n queen they'd be okay."

"Well, you certainly did a fine job with that, didn't you?" Frisk said with scathing sarcasm. "I fucking ate them while they were sleeping last night."

"Yeah, and now my neck hurts like hell." Came an angry voice from behind them.

* * *

On the back of the paper, Chara had found a bad drawing of a bat, with "FULL" and "HUNGRY" written down near it. Underneath full it said "YES," but it was the bit underneath "HUNGRY" that sent chills down their spine. There was a half-finished question mark written with a pencil like the rest of it, but crudely written over that was "NO." Oh, and it was written in blood. Their blood. (How did they know it was their blood, you ask? Magic.)

As Chara had stood there, at the entrance to the Judgement hall where they'd felt they had to go to find the new human, they stared at the back of the aforementioned human, listening in on their conversation with Sans. Sans had yet to look in Chara's direction, with his attention entirely focused on the beast.

The longer they stood there unnoticed, the angrier they got, at Sans for just letting everything happen, and at themselves for not noticing any of the weird behaviour, but mostly at the beast human for killing and eating them. Eventually it overrode their common sense and they interrupted the conversation. Sans looked over the beast's shoulder as the human swirled around in a panicked fashion.

"Shit." They both chorused. Almost immediately after, the beast dashed for the exit on the other side of the hall. They were almost home free, but then…

" _ **C̛̯̘̦O̶M̗̤̖̠ͥ̆̚̚Ę̗͉̯̈͊̐ ̫̮̞͇̤̳̒͌̌̔͝B̝̜̭͚ͯ̚A̠͚̬̬͖͈̥̔́C̲̰̦̥͙̹̙͛ͦ́͗̇̐̽Ḳ̫̀ ̛̣̙̜̝̲͎͑̄̊H̜̩̝͉͇E͔̝̖͇̹̝̙͊͠Ŕ̴̤͖̥̰͈̐ͭͯ͂ͦĒ̛̪̼̣̯̑̀͗̒͋ͅ!̜̘̏̎̄̅͊́͊**_ _ **"**_ Chara yelled.

Everyone froze. Chara clapped a hand over their mouth.

 _Well, I guess that worked…?_ They thought as the beast walked back over to where Sans was still standing, frozen in shock. Poor guy, he's never had to deal with anything like this whole mess before.

Suddenly remembering that they were supposed to be angry, and also that the beast/human/person/thing that they totally didn't have a crush on was standing in front of them, they turned bright red and had no idea what to do next.

"Uhhhh…" Both the human and Chara blushed and looked away after as they tried to start talking at the same time.

"So, um, you probably want to know pretty much everything, right?" The beast asked.

"Yeah, that… that would be good. Let's start on why you can turn into a bat."

"Oh… I don't actually know how I did that. Or how I turned back." The human replied, scratching the back of their head sheepishly.

"Oh. Okay." There was an awkward silence. "So, what's your name?"

"Oh my god, finally. I've been through the entire underground and no one has asked my name until now." The human sounded quite exasperated. "It's Frisk, by the way."

"Frisk. That's a nice name." Frisk turned as red as Chara thought they probably were themselves. The full impact of how surreal the whole conversation was hit them in that moment and they were rendered speechless alongside Sans for a couple moments while Frisk freaked out at the compliment.

After everyone had calmed down (except for Sans, he'd fallen asleep standing up by then) Chara apologised for their demonic yelling earlier.

"That's alright. You're entitled to a bit of yelling after all of the… stuff… that happened." Frisk then murmured something that Chara wouldn't have been able to pick up were it not for their very good hearing. It was something along the lines of "It was kind of hot anyway."

Chara spluttered and felt blood rush to their cheeks.

"Shit, you heard that?" Frisk asked, once again turning red. "I'll… just… leave then. Alphys is supposed to be working on something that stops me from eating people, anyway. It'll be good to get that sooner than later."

"O-oh. Okay. See you around… I guess?" Chara was too embarrassed to try and stop them from leaving, although when they thought Frisk was out of earshot they quietly added "Not that I mind you eating me."

* * *

Frisk wasn't out of earshot.

* * *

 _ **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)**_

 _ **Kinky.**_


	21. Chapter 21

**_Well, this came out fast._**

 ** _The power of Charisk compels me, I guess._**

"Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…"

"…Chara, are you okay?" Asriel asked, standing in Chara's doorway and watching them groaning on their bed with their face in their pillow.

"Nooooo…" Chara's reply was muffled as they still had their face buried deep in their pillow. "I'm such an idiot..."

"What?! That's not true!" Asriel said, before adding, "So, uh, what did you actually do anyway…?"

Chuck had come up to see what was going on. He looked at Asriel curiously. Asriel just shrugged in confusion.

"I don't wanna tell youuuu… It's too embarassingggg…"

Betty and Charlie (who appeared to be a boy at the time) had also arrived and started peering into the room from behind Asriel and Chuck.

"What's going on here?" Betty whispered to Chuck.

"I have no idea." He whispered back.

"Do you… want to give us – I mean me – some hints?" Asriel asked. Normally a slip up like that would've totally given away the fact that it wasn't just him there, but Chara seemed too preoccupied to notice. Actually, normally Chara would've noticed just by listening to the sound of the footsteps that someone was approaching. They could even tell who it was most of the time. And normally Asriel wouldn't even be allowed to talk to Chara when they were upset. So, basically, this whole thing screamed "Weird and confusing."

"…Not really…" As Chara replied, Macy and John appeared as well. It seemed all of the Dreemurr's extended family had a sixth sense when it came to finally being able to catch Chara doing something embarrassing. Or at least hearing about them doing something embarrassing. Chara had so much blackmail on almost all of them, and had used it to make them do so much stuff for them; it was no surprise they all wanted to get back at Chara.

They wouldn't be _that_ cruel, though. Probably. Anyway, back to the conversation.

"…Could I guess at what happened, then?"

"…" Taking their silence as a "Yes" (although he knew it was probably a "No,") Asriel started trying to think of what could've happened to make Chara act the way they were. It looked like the rest of his siblings were thinking hard, too. Aaren, the only one of the Dreemurr children who had yet to arrive, did so then.

"What are-" They began, but were cut off by everyone else (except for Chara, of course) shushing them. They looked over the crowd of people by the doorway and saw Chara, and seemed to at least partially understand what was going on. But not completely; no one fully knew what was going on at the time.

Betty suddenly whispered, "Ask them if it's about the new human." They all agreed that it was an excellent idea.

"Hey, Chara?" Asriel started. Chara let out a grunt of acknowledgement. "Is this about that new human?"

"Haha, no, of course not! Where would you get that idea?!" Chara jolted upright and replied in a shrill voice that made it obvious they were lying. Suddenly, they noticed that it wasn't just Asriel standing at the door – it was their entire family minus Toriel and Asgore. Chara narrowed their eyes.

"Oh shit. Everyone, SCATTER!" Chuck yelled, and they all ran off laughing as Chara screamed at them incoherently from their room.

* * *

"OhgodChara'ssohotIthinkIlikethembutwhatiftheydon'tlikemeback-ohgodwhatiftheyDOlikemebackohmygodI'msoconfusedsomeonehelpme."

 _I think I should be the one asking for help in this situation._ The Hunger commented dryly as Frisk rambled while pacing back and forth in Alphys' lab, and eventually just leaned their head on the wall and groaned.

"Uh… are y-you okay…?" Alphys asked, looking at Frisk worriedly.

"Nooooo… I'm notttttt…" They replied miserably, with their face still on the wall.

"…Do you want to talk about it?" Alphys's curiosity was overriding her normal aversion to any sort of socialising. She honestly had no idea what was going on, but it seemed like a situation that would be in an anime, so she was quite interested.

Frisk thought for a bit. _Do I want to talk about it? With Alphys, I mean? I could just talk to the Hunger instead..._

 _Please don't._ The Hunger replied.

 _Why not? You already know about it. Also stop reading my thoughts when I'm not talking to you._ Nonetheless, they respected the Hunger's request and decided to talk to Alphys.

"…Okay. Where should I start?"

"U-um… how about you start with just telling me what's going on?"

"Right. So I met Chara a couple days ago…"

*One rant and a bit of exposition later…*

"…and they're just too fucking hot! I don't know what to do!" Frisk finished, after about fifteen minutes of ranting. The only thing they'd left out was the fact that they'd killed Chara twice, as they didn't want to explain that. Both Alphys and Frisk were now sitting down and leaning against the wall with cups of instant noodles in their hands.

"I know how that feels. It's not much fun." Alphys sighed. She seemed to have warmed up to Frisk a bit after listening to the rant and was no longer nervous, which also meant her nervous stutter had disappeared.

"Oh really? Who could you possibly feel that way about?" Frisk teased Alphys in a voice that made it clear that they knew exactly who it was.

Alphys was saved from further teasing as Frisk heard heavily muffled a noise coming from behind the door they'd seen the last time they'd been in the lab, the one that said "Approved personnel only." They doubted that they'd have heard it had it not been for their enhanced hearing.

"What was that?" They asked curiously. They'd already been curious about the room, seeing as they weren't able to get into it the last time they were there, but now they _really_ wanted to know what was in there.

"What was what?" Alphys sounded slightly relieved and slightly confused. It seems she hadn't heard the noise, which was reasonable.

"The noise that came from in there." Frisk pointed to the door. "It sounded demonic." They didn't sound concerned in the slightest by that fact.

"Wait, you haven't heard about any of that stuff by now?" Alphys seemed surprised.

"No, what stuff? I need to know!"

"You know, they say curiosity killed the cat. But I'm probably allowed to let you in, as long as you're aware of what's in there."

"But what is in there?!"

"Wow, you sure are eager to go into dangerous places. Alright, here's the gist of it: Sans, Betty, and I all went to the king and queen to ask for approval to do research on human souls. They approved it, and we got to work. Keep in mind, this was when we had only six humans working on breaking the barrier; we needed one more. We extracted and identified a material from inside the human souls we already had that we call Determination, or DT for short. We thought 'This must be the thing that helps human souls survive after death, and what makes them so powerful. So, what if we use it to make some _monster_ souls more powerful?'"

"This seems like some sort of mad scientist type thing so far."

"Yeah, it pretty much was. Anyway. We released our research so far to the public on the queen's orders, since we were already asking for monsters that had 'fallen down' by then, to see if we could help them. Their bodies came in while they were still comatose, not long before they turned to dust. We injected DT into them."

"Well _that_ sounds like a perfectly safe thing to do, doesn't it?"

"We thought it was a good idea at the time. After a while, the bodies hadn't turned to dust, which we thought was good at the time. We told the families of the monsters that the experiment seemed to be working, but that it would take time to tell. After a long while, during which Betty and I finished up Mettaton's first body, still nothing had happened. We decided to inject them with more Determination."

"I imagine that went as well as I expect."

"One of the bodies opened its eyes."

"Oooh, spooky."

"And then, just like that, everyone that had fallen down had woken up. They were all walking around and talking like nothing was wrong. We called all of the families and told them that everyone was alive. But we never could've predicted what happened next…"

 _Huh. Alphys is actually pretty good at dramatic storytelling._ The Hunger commented.

 _Probably from all the anime. Or just from spending too much time around Mettaton._ Frisk replied, before tuning back in on what Alphys was saying.

"We found out the hard way that monsters don't have enough physical matter to take those concentrations of Determination. Their bodies started to meld and lost what physicality they had. Pretty soon, all of the test subjects had melted together into… Well, you'll see soon. We're still working on a cure to it, but if we think that we can't get it done we'll just send them to live with their families as they are. As it is, they spend some time out of the lab with their families already, and the families often come to visit as well."

"Cool, cool. I mean, it's sad, but interesting. Can I go into the place now?" Frisk really _was_ eager to go into a dangerous situation, since they were no longer hungry. They were a bit of a danger seeker (as long as they didn't think anyone else would be in danger because of them), which was one of the main reasons they had ended up the way they were.

"Yeah, yeah. Alright. If you want to that badly." The both of them finished off their noodles and got up from where they were sitting, before heading over to the locked door. However, just as Alphys was about to open it, they were startled by some voices that came from behind them.

"Hey, Alphys! I'm back! Chuck came to say hi on his way to Undyne, as well." Alphys and Frisk swivelled around to see Betty entering the lab with Chuck tagging along behind her. "Oh! Uh, hey. You're the human Chara's so worked up about, right?"

Frisk turned bright red while Alphys muttered "I ship it."

"Oh gosh, Chara's worked up about me? I mean… Uhhh… Um… Y-yes? Maybe?"

"Yeah, they were being all flustered in their room and stuff. Hey, what's your name, by the way? I couldn't get it off of Chara before they yelled at us to leave." Chuck smirked.

"O-oh. It's, uh, Frisk. My name's Frisk."

"Cool. I'm Chuck. Hey, Alphys. Have any messages for me to deliver to Undyne?"

"Uh, no. Not today." Alphys glanced away briefly.

"Alright. Maybe another time." Chuck seemed to be reassuring Alphys about something. It was probably to do with Undyne and her. "Anyway, I should be heading out now. Catch you all later."

They all waved goodbye to Chuck and Betty turned back to Alphys while Frisk recovered from their embarrassment.

"So what were you two doing before we got here?" Betty asked.

"Frisk wants to see the amalglamates for some reason." Alphys told her.

"Ooh, that's a weird name. Can we see them now?" Frisk was practically bouncing with excitement.

"Do you actually genuinely want to see them? Jesus. Are you attracted to creepy, supernatural things or something? First Chara, now this…" Betty was judging Frisk pretty hard, but they didn't notice because they were too preoccupied watching Alphys open the door. As soon as it was open, they zoomed in.

They looked around disappointedly. It was just a lift. "Aww. This isn't spooky at all."

Betty rolled her eyes at them. "That's because it was built as a safety precaution to keep anything that may be dangerous confined to the true lab. But don't worry, it's _very_ spooky down there; the amalglamates are always messing the place up and after a while we stopped trying to clean everything up, unless it's important."

Alphys pressed a button and the lift started going down, and then she added to the conversation. "We mostly only use the true lab for keeping the amalglamates and trying to fix them, now. All the other stuff we can do upstairs."

The elevator doors opened. Frisk grinned in excitement as they rushed out into the derelict lab, taking in all of the creepy things all around them.

"I feel like I'm in my element here." They laughed. "I could live here. That would be fun. No sun, no garlic or onions, no people to accidentally try to eat… Actually, hey! How's that blood substitute going? Not that I need it currently, I already… I… uh, nevermind."

Frisk looked away in embarrassment as they trailed off. Betty had a huge grin on her face, which did not bode well for Frisk.

"Ohohoho… So _that's_ what both of you were so flustered about!" Before Frisk could deny it, they heard an ungodly screech come from deeper in the lab. They turned around in excitement, completely forgetting the embarrassing conversation, and rushed off to where the noise had come from. Alphys and Betty both shared a look of bewilderment as to why Frisk was so enamoured by danger, before shrugging and heading off after them.

 _I swear, there's something seriously wrong with you…_ The Hunger complained.

 _I thought I told you not to swear?_ Frisk joked. _Besides, I could say the same about you._

 ** _2 spoopy 4 me_**


	22. Chapter 22

**_Ayyy, it's another exposition chapter._**

 ** _Fun!_**

"…I guess this explains why they're attracted to Chara…?" Betty said to Alphys, while watching Frisk play with Lemon Bread. "I mean, it's no surprise that Chara's attracted to vampires, but I guess since Frisk is apparently just attracted to dangerous things in general…?"

Frisk heard them talking, but completely ignored them since they were having too much fun humming and flexing with an amalglamate that was apparently named Lemon Bread. Probably because it smelt like lemons, they thought.

* * *

They headed past a sink, but stopped short as they saw some goop come out of the tap and overflow into the basin.

"Are you serious?" Alphys sounded annoyed. "I told them not to do that anymore!"

The goop turned into a bunch of wavering figures that were glitching around and making a horrible static sound. Alphys pulled a phone out of her lab coat and voices started coming out of the receiver. It was still pretty distorted, so it sounded something like this…

"C̨̫̼̞͍͕ͤͮͬ̒̀Ǫ̢̖̫̞̼̖͇̬̰͉͐͂̈́ͬ̃͠m̅̈̔̎ͫ͏̱̩͉̤ȇ̫̹̞̲̘͕̯̯ͥͭͤͫ̚ ̣̤͙͈̞̤̟̓ͨ͜j̛̯̻̬̐͆͘Ǫ̶̗̠̳̝̔̄͂͌ͥ̆͐͒̕ͅIͦ̂͒̆ͫͤ͡҉͓̣͍Ň̛͈̮̙̖͚̟͖̔̋ͥ́ ̨͆͐̑ͭ͂̄̈͐̊҉͔̗̭̖͈̮̤t͚̜̦͍ͭ͟͡ͅḨ̺͙̩̙ͧ̊͐̍ͭ̾e͇̯̹͊̒͆ͣͪ̔͊ͅ ̺̩̍F̢̡͎̘͓̰̣̝͂̿̊ͤ̔u̧̟̳̹̟ͤͬͧ͢N̜̹̅͑ͪ̉́͌ͬ"

Everyone hastily refused, even Frisk, since they were a lot more creeped out by these things than anything else down there (so far).

"Sorry about the Memoryheads, Frisk. No one really knows what they are, but they seem to hang around in the lab most of the time… even if they're usually in the vents and pipes." Alphys apologised.

* * *

Luckily, they soon found something that kept their mind off of the Memoryheads pretty well…

"Is that… a dog?" Frisk squealed in excitement as soon as they'd finished talking, and ran over to play with the dog(s?) They pet it, they played with it, they pet it again, they pet it another time… and then, just for good measure, they pet it one last time before leaving to explore the rest of the lab.

"Well, Endogeny looks happy now…" Betty commented, following Frisk. She and Alphys were having a lot of fun watching everything go down.

* * *

Whilst walking through a hall of mirrors, Frisk was shocked when something came out of the mirror where their reflection was. It seemed to be a pretty scary fusion of an Astigmatism, Final Froggit, and Whimsalot. At least its monsters were identifiable…?

"Reaper Bird! I told you not to hide in the mirrors so you can scare people!" Alphys scolded it, while holding a hand over her heart dramatically. It just melded back into the mirror while making a sound that sounded vaguely like laughter.

* * *

They saw other indiscernible shapes lurking around that retreated when the three of them approached every once and a while, but the last amalglamate that Frisk properly met was one who seemed to have retained a lot of its functions, surprisingly. It also seemed to have mostly kept the form of only one monster. Apparently the dominant monster was the wife of the MTT Resort comedian and the mother of Snowy the snowdrake.

"At first she wasn't very good at doing anything much, but now that she's got a regular schedule for meeting up with Snowy and her husband she's probably the smartest and most progressive amalglamate here! We've got high hopes for her recovery." Alphys explained proudly.

* * *

"Where did the names for all of these things come from anyway? 'Endogeny,' 'Lemon Bread,' 'Reaper Bird…'" Frisk asked as they all headed back to the elevator.

"Well, Sans came up with some of them, like Endogeny, but lots of them actually came from nicknames that people used for them that kind of just stuck. For example, Reaper Bird was Chara's nickname for it, and everyone else started using it after a while." Alphys replied, while fiddling with the lift's authorization panel thing.

"Huh. Cool."

Alphys activated the lift again and they all started heading back up to the part of the lab that was mostly just used as a living space for Alphys and Betty.

"Speaking of Chara…" Betty began, with a cheeky grin on her face.

"No. Nope. I don't know what you're going to say, but I don't want to hear it." Frisk replied immediately.

"Awww, that's no fun." Betty pouted as the three of them exited the lift.

Frisk decided it was time to change the conversation topic. "Hey Alphys, you never answered that question from earlier. How's the substitute going?"

Unfortunately for them, Alphys didn't let them drop the subject. "I thought you said that you didn't need that anymore?"

Betty snickered and Frisk glared at both of them until Alphys actually answered the question. "It's going well, actually. But seriously, do you even need it anymore?"

They thought about it for a bit. "Hmm. Maybe not, but can you please make it anyway, just in case?"

"You mean in case Chara doesn't let you-" Betty cut in, but luckily for Frisk, before she could finish a distraction came in the form of Chuck being confused, annoyed, and slightly panicked as he burst into the lab.

"How long has Undyne's house been on fire?!" He asked in a shrill voice.

"It's still on fire?!" Frisk laughed. "Boy, that cooking lesson went _very_ badly. It was fun though. To answer your question, it's been on fire for like three or four days now. Undyne's at Sans and Papyrus's house."

Chuck huffed and left the lab in the direction of the River Person, again, muttering something about how he couldn't leave her alone for one cooking lesson without something being set on fire.

"I didn't know about that either. You must've set it on fire after I left for New Home." Betty commented.

"Yeah, it was after doing some of the shows for Mettaton."

"Oh, really? I'm fairly certain Chara enjoyed those shows. Like, a lot."

Frisk looked annoyed. "Could you stop bringing that stuff up?"

"Fine. But only because you're not being all flustered anymore. It's no fun."

"Why are you even being like this, anyway? For all you know, I'm a highly dangerous murderer who's here to kill you all."

"Mmm. That would suit Chara's tastes, I guess. But I don't think so. You've been mostly harmless so far – actually, you've been, like, completely the opposite… which is lots of fun in case you didn't know. Apart from the whole beast thing, of course, but as far as I know that hasn't hurt anyone yet."

Frisk ignored the fact that that last bit was completely wrong in favour of asking, "How do you even know about the beast thing?"

"Because I live in a place that has access to the cameras all over the underground, duh."

"Oh… yeah. That makes sense. I don't suppose either of you know about my other form, though?" Frisk questioned as they headed for the exit of the lab.

"Wait, what other form?" Alphys and Betty asked at the same time.

Frisk laughed as the automatic doors to the lab opened to let them out. "You don't know? That's great. It'll be hilarious when you find out."

They waved goodbye and sped off before the two scientists could ask any more questions. Did they know where they were going? Of course not, just that it would hopefully be somewhere interesting.

* * *

Chara sat, fuming, in their room. They could not believe the nerve of their siblings! To just… stand in their doorway and… listen to them being sad… and then LAUGH at them?! Ugh! And then almost all of them ran off to god knows where. Actually, for some of them it was easy to tell where they were going, but that was beside the point.

The point was… uh, the point was…

…they were being _mean_! Yeah, that's it! And, uh… that's totally not hypocritical at all!

Chara sat there pouting for a while longer before a couple of thoughts appeared in their head.

 _...I wonder what Frisk is doing... I wonder if they'll… come around some time…_

… _I wonder if they're…_ _ **hungry**_ _…_

They quickly cut off that line of thought, but not before they'd turned quite red and some… _interesting_ scenarios had popped into their head.

They decided it was a good time as any to have some chocolate, so they grabbed some from their secret stash and started eating it, hoping it would distract them from everything. It was working for a while, but then they heard a knock at their door.

"Who is it?" They grumbled through a mouthful of chocolate.

"My child, are you eating something in there?" Toriel's voice came through the door.

"No!" Chara lied, while stuffing their chocolate back where it came from.

"May we come in?" Asgore's deep voice resonated through the room.

"Yeah, okay." Chara replied after they'd properly hidden everything. The door opened and their adoptive parents entered the room.

"Greetings, Chara." Toriel smiled.

"Greetings, mother. Father. What brings you here? Shouldn't you still be working?"

"We took some time off of work to discuss something important with you." Asgore looked rather serious. Chara raised an eyebrow. Toriel soon turned serious as well. The three of them all sat down in the room, which was a bit crowded at this point.

"Yes. We've heard some things from Sans regarding that new human that fell down…" She began. Chara turned bright red once again, and lost the regal manner that they usually had when talking with their parents.

"U-uh, what kind of things?" They asked nervously.

"Before we tell you, can you promise that you will not speak a word of this to anyone other than Sans, Toriel and myself?" Asgore's question managed to make Chara curious enough to ignore their embarrassment for the time.

"Woah, this really is important. Okay, sure. I promise."

"Good. So, you know how Sans is a part time judge, because of his ability to see people's EXP and LV, correct?" Toriel asked.

"Yes. You told us that you found out about that when you were chatting to him one day to check on whether any new humans had arrived, and he commented on how you'd barely killed anyone even though you were in the war."

"That's right. Now, you are also aware of him being a part time scientist as well, correct?"

Chara nodded. "I assume you're leading up to something with this?"

"We are." Asgore confirmed. "As you know, Sans worked with Betty and Alphys when they made the amalglamates, and is currently still working on fixing them. But what you probably don't know about is the other research Sans does in secrecy for us, especially since he does it in his own personal lab. Even Alphys doesn't know about this, it's just the two – well, three now – of us and Sans himself."

"That's interesting, but why are you telling me?"

"Patience, my child. We will get to that eventually. But first, we will explain what the research he does is." Toriel chided. "To summarise it, he researches time distortions, as well as what he calls 'timelines.'"

"Oh. _Oh_." Chara suddenly understood why their parents were talking to them of all people about this.

"I see you know what we're talking about. Well, to answer your earlier question, Sans took note that you were able to remember the time manipulations that he believes to be caused by the beast-like human. This was not completely unexpected, however – the manipulations or the fact that you remember them." Asgore explained.

"What? Why would you expect something like this?" Chara asked, bewildered.

"Ah… Well, you remember when Alphys, Sans, and Betty extracted determination from all of the humans? Before they did that, Sans studied the DT levels in everyone. You had the highest out of all the humans."

"Wait, how does determination help people turn back time? And why is everyone else unable to do it, other than Frisk?"

"Oh, did you get the new human's name?" Toriel asked curiously. "What about their number?"

"Mum!" Chara felt the blood rush to their cheeks once again. Toriel chuckled.

"Sorry, my child. I could not resist. Back to the matter at hand. We do not know how the time manipulations are caused, or how determination affects anything. Sans told us that he was hoping to get a DT reading on this 'Frisk' so that we may find out."

"Right. Okay." Chara took a second to calm down, before asking their next question. "How did you expect these manipulations?"

"Sans apparently constructed a machine that tracks them a while ago, and marked down that around a couple days ago was when they start happening. He says that there's a while before the next one at this point, but that then they become very frequent."

"Hm. That doesn't sound very good." Toriel and Asgore nodded in agreement, then stood up and headed to the door.

"Well, that is all, my child. Be sure to keep all of this in mind the next time you meet Frisk… even if you're on a date." Toriel and Asgore both laughed as they exited the room. It seemed teasing Chara about their totally-not-crush was becoming a family activity.

 _ **Don't worry, the real Charisk will be happening (relatively) soon.**_


	23. Chapter 23

_**I am so very sorry for taking so long with this chapter, but I got some pretty bad writer's block. Shout out to my good buddy Shine Archetype for providing some ideas to help me get back to writing.**_

 _ **Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's not too long, about average, but I think it's pretty good.**_

Sans sighed and leant back from his desktop to take a break from working. From what he'd gathered from the data readings of the timey-wimey-stuff measuring scale thingy (no one knew exactly what to call it, they just knew that it tracked timelines,) there was going to be a long while before the next manipulation still.

That was the good part of the data. The bad part was that it was a huge manipulation, larger than any of the others before it (though not that many had happened at this point.) That was the reason Sans was currently so stressed; he was trying to figure out how to stop it from happening.

Though, the longer he worked at it, the more fruitless the task seemed. How could he possibly stop a time manipulation from happening, especially if his machine had already recorded its occurrence?

The more he thought about it, the worse he felt. What was the point of doing anything if it was all going to be for naught?

Sans sat there staring at the tiled floor for what felt like an eternity, going over these thoughts over and over, each time making him feel worse. The only reason he snapped out of it was because of an alarm he kept on him at all times was going off, notifying him that someone had entered the Final Corridor.

Sighing, he got up and took a shortcut into the shadows behind his pillar. Had to keep up the appearance of the all-knowing Judge and such.

He watched as two large figures walked through the hall, heading to the castle. As he stepped out from behind the pillar, he realised that it was Toriel and Asgore who were walking towards him.

"Don not fear Sans, it is just us. We're on our way back from explaining everything to Chara." Asgore rumbled as he caught sight of the small skeleton.

"mmkay. i'll get back to work then." Sans swivelled around and was about to head back through his shortcut when Toriel's voice stopped him.

"Ah, hold on! I have a joke for you!" He turned back around so that he was facing the two of them again. Asgore moved towards the exit surreptitiously. Well, as surreptitiously as he could.

"alright, shoot."

"Okay. Knock knock."

"who's there?"

"To."

"to who?"

"Don't you mean 'to whom?'" Toriel and Sans laughed at that. It had lightened his mood quite a bit, but his laugh was still less sincere than usual. Toriel noticed, and also became aware of the fact that his smile seemed more forced than usual (not that he could stop smiling anyway, but you get the point). "Are you feeling quite alright, my friend? You seem a little down."

His eyelights flicked away from her eyes for a second before returning. He shrugged. "yeah, yeah. 'm fine. just a little tired from work."

"Oh, I hope you are not working yourself too hard! Feel free to take a break every once in a while!" Toriel sounded concerned. Sans chuckled.

"lots of people would say that i take too many breaks already."

"Lots of people don't know that you're usually working during those 'breaks.'" Toriel looked like she had a thought. "Say, why don't you take a break now, and we can chat for a while? It has been too long since we had a proper talk."

"sure thing. sounds nice." The two of them walked towards the castle.

Poor Asgore had no idea that he'd only temporarily escaped the bad jokes.

* * *

Chara had sat down and contemplated their newfound knowledge for a while before deciding to head somewhere quieter so that they could fully process everything – and also somewhere they wouldn't get teased by their family, because that was getting quite annoying by that point.

They eventually decided to head down to Waterfall, as there were many spots to relax around there, and it was just a nice and quiet place overall – when Undyne wasn't running around yelling, of course. Hopefully this would not be one of those times.

Chara left their home and walked along the path through the city before reaching the elevator and taking it down to MTT Resort. On the way they encountered a couple of monsters, who they waved to and continued on their way.

As soon as they left the Resort, they were hit by a sweltering heat wave. They hurried along to the lift, which Alphys had smartly installed air conditioning in, and took it over to the Lab. As soon as they exited the lift they hurried past the lab and across the bridge into Waterfall. They could've visited Alphys and Betty, but they didn't really feel like it, and also Betty would probably tease them about Frisk. Revenge for everything they'd done, Chara thought.

The temperature dropped the moment they entered Waterfall, and they slowed their pace as they were going past the "Welcome to Hotland" sign. Suddenly, a strong blast of wind and… something else blasted past them and they were sent spinning.

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't see you there! I probably shouldn't go that fast…" A familiar voice apologised, sounding sheepish. They saw a hand being held out to them to help them up through their blurry vision. They realised who had bumped into them just as they took the offered hand, and by the look on Frisk's face, they'd only just realised as well.

There was a long length of time during which both of them were silently staring at each other before Chara realised they were still holding Frisk's hand, and also still on the floor where they'd fell. They slid their eyes away from Frisk's in embarrassment as they got up and let go of the hand.

"Um. So. How come you're in Waterfall…?" Chara asked after another bout of silence.

"I was, um, going to explore for a bit. I was at the Lab but Betty was teasing me about… stuff…" Frisk answered. Chara knew exactly what 'stuff' Frisk was talking about.

"Ah, yeah. That's the main reason I didn't go in there when I went past earlier... And the reason I'm in Waterfall in the first place. None of them would shut up about the… yeah."

More awkward silence.

"Hey, do you wanna explore Waterfall with me? You probably know the whole place already, but we could just hang and talk and stuff…" Frisk asked suddenly.

"Okay!" Chara agreed eagerly. "Uhm, I mean… Yeah, okay. Sure."

Frisk giggled, and Chara stopped working for a couple seconds before getting even redder than they'd already been. They were fairly certain Frisk hadn't noticed though, luckily, seeing as they'd already started off down the path into Waterfall.

They hurried to catch up with them.

* * *

Frisk kept sending glances towards Chara whenever they thought they weren't looking. Also when they were looking. Basically, they weren't being very subtle about the fact that they were staring at Chara more than looking where they were going. They did notice one thing when they stopped looking at Chara for a bit, though.

"Hey, this is where Undyne tried to kill me!" Frisk exclaimed.

"Wait, what?!" Chara looked… well, let's just say that surprised would be an understatement. "Why did Undyne try to kill you?"

"Oh, you know… All the stuff with the… thing and… all that." Frisk replied eloquently, waving their arms around in strange gestures to represent the beast.

"Oh yes, I know _exactly_ what you're talking about." Chara's voice was practically dripping with sarcasm.

"Oh, shut up. I was talking about the beastie thing."

"' _Beastie thing?_ ' Next thing I know, you'll have a name for it and be telling me what its favourite food is."

"Oooh, we totally should give it a name! How about 'Sir Jonathan III?'" By now they were walking across the bridge where Frisk had caught MK, and were about to have to start wading through some water.

"I cannot believe you." Chara then caught sight of the water and grimaced. "Ugh. I forgot why I don't go to Waterfall that much. My clothes always get all soggy."

"I could carry you, if you want." Frisk wiggled their eyebrows at Chara, who blushed while trying, unsuccessfully, to form a response.

"N-no, it… it's fine. I wouldn't want to inconvenience you." They eventually managed to get out.

"It would be far from an inconvenience." Frisk let it slide though, stepping into the water and starting to wade through it. Chara once again hurried to catch up.

* * *

The two of them headed through the dark rooms, and both of them stopping every once in a while for Frisk to play with a monster. Chara was more interested in watching Frisk.

* * *

They reached the path that contained lots of echo flowers, and they both hastened to hurry through the area. Chara didn't even bother to stop and complain about having to go through more water. The less they had to listen to the unintelligible whispering, the better.

* * *

When they passed Gerson's shop, Chara didn't object to swinging on in for a second to say hi. They liked Gerson; he was wise and not particularly loud, both of which were good things. Also he was a monster hero, which Chara fully supported.

* * *

While Frisk headed over to visit Napstablook, Chara went to have a look at Undyne's house. Frisk's claim that it was still on fire was very much true.

* * *

Eventually, they reached the area Chara had come for. They picked up the bridge seeds while Frisk milled around, confused. They gave Chara a baffled look as the bridge seeds formed a path into the secret bench area. Yes, that was the official name. Asriel said so.

"I didn't know this was here! This is cool!" Frisk said enthusiastically, looking around the room, which was actually pretty sparse. Just an echo flower and a bench. Still, it was a nice, quiet place, which is why Chara was there in the first place.

"I like to come here to relax and think." They informed Frisk.

"Why'd you bring me then?" Frisk joked. "I'm not exactly the quietest person around."

"Hmm, you're right. Alright then, get out of here."

"Wait, what?"

"You heard me. Shoo." Chara waved Frisk away before sitting down on the bench. As expected, Frisk did not leave.

"You can't just shoo me away!" They replied, falsely indignant.

"I can and I just did." Chara leant back on the bench, closing their eyes, with a small smile on their face.

"No, I mean you literally can't get rid of me. I'm like, ten times stronger than you, remember?"

"Are you? What are your stats? I mean, I know what 'Sir Jonathan's' stats are, but not yours." Chara opened their eyes again to look at Frisk curiously. They shrugged and made an "I don't know" sound.

"I have no idea how to check them and couldn't be bothered to figure it out. A... person I know was going to teach me how, but we never got around to it."

"That's easy. Just focus on, uhhh… reading your soul or something. I'm not really sure how to put it. So actually, it isn't easy. Just try it."

"Gee, thanks. With your advice, nothing can go wrong." Frisk snarked. As they did so, a stat box appeared in front of them. They both stared at it for a second, before a smug grin appeared on Chara's face. Frisk made no comment, instead opting to read what the stat box was showing – the important bits, at least.

" **FRISK** (that's me) **– HUMAN FORM – ATK 69 DEF 69. Their stats reflect their tendency to flirt."** They snickered while reading it all out loud.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. Come over here and have a look at it yourself if you don't believe me." Chara decided that they'd prefer to stay sitting down, and instead waved Frisk over to sit next to them. Looking at the stat box, they could indeed confirm the… interestingly numbered stats.

"Hmm. That's strange. Your defence doesn't change at all when you're in your beast form. Or rather, when 'Sir Jonathan' is out."

"Well, I mean, the same kinds of stuff still kills me, right? So there's no reason it would change. On a side note, are we actually going to be calling it 'Sir Jonathan?'"

"Yes. I'll never let you forget your terrible naming skills."

"Hey! It's a good name!"

They sat there in silence for a short while, both of them becoming aware of their close proximity on the bench. Frisk embarrassedly scooted away to the other side, but seeing as it wasn't a particularly big bench, they were still pretty close. Eventually, Frisk broke the awkward silence.

"So, as I recall, your stats were ninety-nine for both attack and defence, right?"

"Yeah, that's right. So you aren't ten times stronger than me."

"No, only about five times stronger. Which still proves my point. Although I didn't actually think you'd try to get rid of me, anyway." Suddenly, a huge grin appeared on Frisk's face. Chara decided that it didn't bode well for them at all. They were right. "I mean, look at this place! It's probably the most romantic place I've seen in the Underground – maybe on par with the garbage dump. Perfect for a first kiss!"

Chara froze with their mouth agape, watching Frisk, who had not stopped wiggling their eyebrows. Even in their shocked state, they still noticed that Frisk was getting more nervous the longer they sat there with no response.

They also noticed that Frisk had gotten quite close again.

"You know, they say there's no time like the present." Frisk commented dryly. "But I guess I shouldn't have acted so fast. You clearly aren't ready."

"U-um… yeah. Uh. Sorry. I, uh…" Chara stammered.

"No, no. I should be the one apologising." They replied, standing up and scratching the back of their head sheepishly. "It wasn't really the best thing to do. Sorry about that. I'll just… go sit somewhere. On my own. Regretting all of my decisions that have lead up to this point."

Frisk turned and started walking away, but stopped upon hearing Chara call "Wait! Come back. Uh, please?"

They turned back around with a hopeful look on their face, and sat back down on the bench. Chara gathered their thoughts back together and tried to create a proper sentence.

"Okay. So. I have no idea how to feel about any of this. These past couple of days have been pretty crazy. I've never been in a relationship before, or rather, a romantic one. So maybe wait a bit on everything, okay? Thanks." After a moments silence, they added, "I… I hope I didn't just ruin everything. I didn't, did I?"

"No, no. It's fine. That makes perfect sense. I'm sorry. Uh, again. I'll just… go now. Again. As well. I'll go again as well as being sorry again. Does that make sense? I don't know. Um, bye." Frisk rambled, before disappearing with a blast of air.

Chara _really_ hoped they didn't make Frisk feel bad.

* * *

 _God, you are such an idiot._ The Hunger insulted.

 _I know, I know! I just thought… I like them; they seemed to like me… Do they like me? I can't tell anymore! That was so stupid! I'm so stupid!_ Frisk replied miserably.

 _Glad you're finally able to acknowledge that. On a completely unrelated side note, because I don't want to discuss that awkwardness anymore, can I get a cool new name?_

 _Pfft, are you serious?_ Luckily, the strange request seemed to have lightened Frisk's mood. _If you really want one, you can just have that name I thought up earlier._

 _Awesome. Say goodbye to 'The Hunger,' because here comes 'Sir Jonathan III!'_

 _ **All hail Sir Jonathan III.**_

 _ **I'd say I'm sorry for once again denying you all your Charisk, but I'm having a lot of fun.**_


	24. Chapter 24

**_I'M BACK!_**

 ** _Well, it sure has been a while. I'm very sorry about that, I was super busy and then had a bit of writer's block. Lovely._**

 ** _But that's over now, so I should hopefully be able to get back to my sort of regular update schedule. No promises, though._**

 ** _Anyway. This chapter's a bit longer than usual and, guess what..._**

 ** _More exposition! Yay!_**

Chuck had calmed down a bit after his freak out at the lab, and had taken the River Person down to Snowdin, shivering upon arrival. He'd forgotten how cold it was here; he rarely visited.

After summoning a small magic flame to keep him warm – and then making it larger, because it wasn't enough to warm him properly – he headed over to Papyrus's house. Along the way he waved to the monsters he encountered, some of which he knew, some of which he didn't. He had to suddenly brace himself, however, when he heard Undyne charging up to him from where she'd been standing in front of Papyrus's house. It was hard not to notice her, honestly.

"NNGGGAHHHHH!" She yelled, the other monsters surreptitiously turning away and covering their ears before starting to leave. As much as they loved Undyne, they all knew how feisty she was, and that it would be wise to get out of her radius as to not become collateral damage.

The two of them quickly fell into the normal routine of Chuck dodging Undyne like a matador, except instead of a bull attacking him he was just trying to dodge Undyne's noogies. Of course, no mortal could avoid her forever, so it was only a matter of time until she caught him.

"Nooo, Undyne! Stop it!" Chuck yelled, half laughing as Undyne noogied him. Papyrus watched from the sidelines with a slightly worried, slightly relieved expression – relieved that he wasn't the one being noogied and worried about Chuck's fire going out. What a guy, always notices when his friends have problems.

"UM, UNDYNE? PERHAPS YOU SHOULD STOP NOW. CHUCK SEEMS LIKE HE'S GETTING COLD." Papyrus asked after what seemed a suitable amount of time. Undyne immediately let up – she knew how cold it was in Snowdin for someone without large amounts of fur or immunity to the cold.

"Woah, punk! Why didn't you say so? We need to get you warmed up!" She immediately threw Chuck over her shoulder and hurried back to Papyrus's house, with him muttering something along the lines of "wouldn't be cold if you hadn't thrown me in the snow."

"Hey, Undyne? How come you didn't let me know your house was on fire?" He asked as soon as they got him warmed back up again. Sniffing the air, he noticed the smell of something burning. What a surprise. He healed some of his cuts and bruises he had received from their tussle with his magic while waiting for an answer.

"Oh yeah, that's why I'm here… I forgot." Undyne explained with a sheepish expression.

"How could you forget something like that? I had to go and ask Alphys what was going on." Chuck was slightly annoyed.

"Well, I was having so much fun here!" Papyrus beamed at that. "Me an' Papyrus have been hanging a lot – Sans hasn't been around too much, I dunno what he's been doing… maybe his job, for once – oh! We've done loads of cooking, wanna see and have a taste?"

So that was what that smell was. "Uh, no thanks. Not right now."

Luckily, Undyne seemed to drop it as she began to talk about something else. "Speaking of cooking, that's why my house was on fire. You should've been there, punk! It was great! Me and the new human, Frisk, we had loads of fun!"

"Yeah, they said something along those lines when I saw them at the Lab earlier today. They're the one who pointed me in your direction." He paused for a second before he remembered something. "Hey, did you know Chara has a crush on Frisk?"

" **THEY WHAAAAAATTTT?!"** Papyrus yelled. And, as you all know, a Papyrus yell has the power to break all glass in the vicinity. That's why Sans always buys plastic cups. Shame there's no such thing as a plastic window (probably.)

Undyne and Chuck cringed, covering their ears, as well as everyone else in Snowdin. While it was an understandable reaction (Chara _never_ crushes on anyone,ever), no one likes hearing a Papyrus yell – including Papyrus.

"AH, WHOOPS… SORRY. I WAS JUST HAPPY THAT FRISK FOUND SOMEONE OTHER THAN ME TO DATE." He apologised. "SO, UH, YOU WERE SAYING?"

"Yeah, Chara was watching all of Mettaton's shows that had the new human in them, and now they've been sitting around freaking out for ages. Well, that's what they were doing when I left." Chuck explained as soon as he had recovered.

"Woah. That's really weird…" Undyne commented.

* * *

"Agh, my ears…!" John winced, covering the aforementioned body parts as he hopped off of the River Person's boat, which didn't have the animal head on currently. He'd had to wait for a while in Hotland for it to arrive, but he would've been happier if he'd had to wait a little longer. It had been a long time since he had heard one of the mythical Papyrus-yells, and it was even worse than he'd remembered.

Aaren, who had stayed on the boat a second longer before getting off after John, tied their ribbon around their ears in a foolproof solution. The yell seemed to be over by now, but it didn't hurt to be prepared for another one.

"You look like an idiot." John commented as soon as his ears had stopped ringing.

"Takes one to know one." Aaren replied with a straight face.

The friendly insults continued as they headed into Snowdin Forest, until they reached the converging path right before the Ruins. They headed north past the magic box instead of continuing east to the Ruins.

As expected, there was a wide river in front of them, still with the fishing rod stuck in the ground in front of it. With a wave in the river's direction, Aaren froze over the part in front of them and gestured towards it.

"You first." But when John started to walk towards it, Aaren stopped him. "Actually, I don't want the whole thing to melt and for you to fall in; you'd evaporate the whole river. I'll go first to solidify the foundations."

"Very funny. I'm not _that_ hot, though." John replied, pretending to look into a mirror.

"Well, I did see a lot of steam coming off you the last time you fell in, but no. I didn't think you were. Your hot-headedness makes up for it, though." Aaren stepped onto the thin ice on top of the river and underneath them the water froze down to the river floor. They walked forwards and, upon reaching the other side, turned around to watch John cross.

John was looking at the ice suspiciously. "If you unfreeze it underneath me again…" He began.

"I won't do that; it wouldn't be as funny this time." Aaren assured. After a second more of waiting, John stepped on the ice, sliding across to get to the other side rather than walking. As soon as he was over the ice melted back into water and the bridge was gone. They continued on a smaller path through the woods.

Eventually, they reached a small building with a big fenced area out in front of it. Inside the fenced area were some training dummies and targets for ranged and close combat practice, and some marked areas for other activities. They built the area themselves.

Inside the building were a couple other pieces of equipment and some food, along with a bookshelf, a couch and a TV, a table with two chairs, a bunk bed, and a toilet in a room to the side. When they weren't staying at New Home or with their other siblings, this is where they were. (It took a long time to convince Toriel to let them live in the middle of nowhere, but they had Asgore's help, so that made it easier.)

"So, do you want to train first or just go in and read? Maybe see what's on TV?" John asked.

"We're always out training. Either that or doing the other 'training.' Why don't we sit down and watch something on the television?" Aaren suggested.

"Okay, sounds good." John opened the gate into the fenced area, holding it open for Aaren before crossing the area quickly to enter the house. He summoned some normal magic flames to light the fireplace and a couple of the torches that were in wall brackets where the light didn't reach, before flopping down on the couch in front of the TV.

"Speaking of training, your orange attacks have been getting really good recently. Good job." Aaren complimented as they entered the building, closing the door behind them.

"You think? I've been trying pretty hard to improve." John replied, looking fairly pleased with himself. "Your blue attacks have been getting better too, you know. Not that you weren't already pretty good with them."

"Thanks. Hey, what do you want to eat? We've got some cinnamon bunnies and some crabapples and… oh, some of mum's pie, too." Aaren's voice was slightly muffled from being inside a cupboard.

"Is it snail pie or butts pie?"

"Butterscotch-cinnamon. Stop calling it that, by the way. You've been hanging with Chara and Asriel too much."

"I'll have a slice of that then, thanks. And I'm not going to stop unless mum is around, cause it's hilarious."

"Okay, one slice of _butterscotch-cinnamon pie_ coming up." Aaren pulled the slice out and onto a plate before grabbing a crabapple for themselves and heading over to sit down next to John on the couch.

"Thanks for the _butts pie_ , Aaren." Aaren looked at John with his signature "I'm not going to rise to that bait, you know" look, before they both cracked smiles and started eating.

"What do you want to watch? Should we see if anything's on, rewatch some recorded stuff, or look for a movie?" John asked, picking up the remote and turning the TV on.

"Why don't we have a look at those shows Mettaton was doing with the new human? He'll probably be showing them again until he does a new show. I didn't see some of them, so it should be interesting." Aaren decided.

"Sure thing. Wonder what Chara sees in them." John commented offhandedly.

"Wonder what I see in you."

"Rude."

* * *

After the yell had stopped echoing around Waterfall, Charlie decided it was time to take her hands off of her ears and keep moving back to her house with Macy, who had decided to come and stay with her for a while.

Speaking of Macy, she was standing there watching Charlie amusedly. She hadn't bothered putting her hands over her ears – probably to impress anyone who might be watching.

"How did you manage to listen to that without dying?" Charlie asked as she started off along the path again.

"It's not that bad, you know. Well, not after the first few echoes." Macy replied.

"Not for you, maybe. You've got balls of steel." They both laughed at that as they stopped at Gerson's shop. They had just got off of the River Person's boat, the one with the animal head, when they had heard the yell. It was a shame; if Macy had taken a little longer packing her stuff when they'd stopped by where she lived with Catty and Bratty, they probably wouldn't have been too affected by the yell. But, there's no point in wondering what could have happened anymore, since it was already done.

The two of them bought some crabapples and sea tea from Gerson before continuing on through the big room next to the dump and the snail farm, stopping to have a look at Undyne's house in amusement before taking a ride with the duck.

Just as they were about to enter the part of Waterfall that was generally just called the "glowing water place," a strong gust of wind containing a strange blurred figure blasted past them. Before either of them could ask what was going on, there was another gust of wind and the new human appeared before them.

"Sorry, I didn't see you there! I should probably start looking where I'm going… it's a good thing I didn't bump into anyone this time." They commented.

"How are you able to go that fast without killing yourself?" Macy asked immediately after she'd gotten over the shock. "Actually, how are you able to go that fast anyway?"

"Before you answer that, can we get your name? I don't think anyone's told us what it is." Charlie added.

"My name's Frisk. You're… Macy and Charlie, right?" They both nodded in confirmation. "And I can go that fast because of a… condition? One that also means I won't die from it. Yeah."

"Sure, that makes perfect sense." Charlie decided to drop it. "So who was it you hit the last time you did that speedy thing?"

"Ah, that was Chara. They're the one who told me your names." Frisk replied with a sheepish look. "They should be around Waterfall somewhere, we were hanging out a bit, but they seemed to want to be alone, mostly."

"Yeah, that sounds like them. Well, it was nice to meet you properly. See you around, yeah?" Macy had already started to turn around as she waved goodbye, but stopped when Frisk spoke up.

"Oh, wait, before I forget… Do you know what that sound was from earlier? It really hurt my ears." A pained look appeared on their face as they recalled it. Macy and Charlie laughed.

"That was the infamous Papyrus yell. It's so loud that once it even incapacitated a monster. Don't tell him about that, though. He'd feel really bad." Charlie informed them.

"Wow. Okay then. Anyway, like you were saying, see you around!" Before either of them could reply, Frisk was gone again.

The two of them stood there staring at where Frisk had been, before Macy shrugged and started back along the path to Charlie's place. They walked across the tiny bridge connecting Sans's telescope area to the glowing part of Waterfall, and started talking to each other again.

"I wonder what's up with them." Macy commented as she wandered along the black grass and had a look at all the glowing plants. It had been a while since she visited Waterfall, and this part in particular was very pretty.

"Probably something mysterious about their condition. I bet that's why Chara likes them; they could always tell when something was up with people. And they love spooky mysteries." Charlie joked.

After a short while of walking, they reached a split in the path and they headed along the eastern way, coming to what appeared to be a dead end with just some seagrass growing in the centre of the ground.

Macy gestured towards the wall that they were facing. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

"Alright, alright. You could do with some more patience. Maybe you should be staying with Aaren and John instead of me." Charlie suggested as she waved her hand to open the hidden door out of the black stone and dirt that formed the wall. As a matter of fact, the door was made out of the same materials, just carved into a door outline and detached slightly so it was possible to remove it. Possible for Charlie, at least, and any others who might be able to manipulate dirt and stone.

After both of them had entered the house through the doorway, Charlie slid the door back into place. You would have thought it to be dark, but there were holes from which air could come through, and so to an extent light. Of course, there wasn't that much light coming through those, so Charlie also had lots of the glowing plants in pots around the place, and even had part of the floor that was made of glass and had the glowing water underneath that. Aaren had helped with that bit.

Speaking of Aaren, Macy was responding to Charlie's suggestion. "I'm fairly certain they only have two beds, and I don't especially want to be sleeping on a couch. Even if it might be only a little worse than what I have at my place."

"Well, they probably just share one of the beds most of the time anyway. You know, to 'conserve heat,' as they would probably put it." Charlie snickered a bit before deciding to go and check the UnderNet on her computer.

"That's another reason, though. I don't want to be around them when they're being all… you know. And I highly doubt they'd want me around for that either. Plus, they're always training." Macy argued.

"Okay, good point, I suppose." Charlie let out an annoyed sound. "Ugh, looks like my electricity's down again. I guess that's the downside of literally living under a rock. Think you can help me with it?"

"Yeah, sure. Let's take a look at your generator. Good thing I'm here, huh?" Charlie nodded as Macy followed her into her generator room. It consisted entirely of, surprise surprise, her generator. Everyone in the underground had one, for in case the CORE was down for maintenance or something else happened to it, or they were like Charlie and lived somewhere it was hard to get a connection to the CORE. Alphys and Betty were working on improving the connection, though. Mostly so they didn't have to listen to Charlie complaining about her generator not working all the time. Speaking of Charlie complaining…

"It's out of power _again_! It isn't supposed to run out at all!"

"Calm down, it just needs a jumpstart, like usual." Macy walked up to the generator and put her hand over it.

"I know, but it's just so annoying. Sometimes it turns off while I'm in the middle of something on the computer."

"Yes, you've said. Many times." Before Charlie could reply, Macy sent a shock into the generator through her hand. It whirred back to life and she looked up at Charlie with a smug grin.

"Don't look at me like that. It's only easy for you to fix it because you have lightning magic. I always have to get Alphys to come over here and start it up with her own lightning when it breaks. Honestly, it's been ages. She and Betty should've finished designing an upgrade by now."

"Yeah, well. We can't do much about it cause no one else can make heads or tails of anything they build." Macy tried to reason with Charlie. It failed and she kept complaining as they left the generator room.

"Which means they should be more responsible, because everyone's waiting on them for it. I bet they just sit around watching anime all the time rather than working."

"Okay, that may be slightly true, but not completely. You know that. And try not to say these things too much around Alphys, her self-esteem isn't much better than it used to be."

Charlie grunted. "I bet they're watching anime right now."

* * *

"Hey, aren't we supposed to be working on something right now?"

Alphys didn't take her eyes off of the anime playing on the screen when she replied to Betty's question. "Uh. Probably. We can do it another time. We're almost at the good part, I can tell."

Betty shrugged and leaned back down on her expanded easy-to-describe bed. Alphys was sitting on her own one. Both of them were pushed together and there was a tablet where it was easy for the two of them to see the screen.

Alphys was right, anyway. It was just getting to the good part.

After a while longer of watching anime Alphys asked, "Hey, could you grab some soda from the fridge?"

"Yeah sure, just let me…" Betty concentrated on the fridge door, opening it with her magic and pulling out two bottles of soda. She floated them upstairs and dropped them in front of herself and Alphys.

"Awesome. Thanks."

"No problem."

* * *

"You're doing well."

Asriel jumped in shock as he heard the voice come from behind him. He turned around to see Chara smirking.

"Well, you were." They added. He turned back to his game to see that he had gone from first to last place.

"Chara, I told you not to do that anymore." He whined, while trying to get back into first.

"I know, but it's funny."

"It's also rude. Where have you been, anyway?"

"I went to Waterfall to relax. Where's everyone else?"

"Mum and dad are at the castle working, Betty is with Alphys at the Lab, Chuck went to find Undyne, Macy and Charlie left to stay at Charlie's place, and Aaren and John are all the way back at their house." Asriel counted them all off on his fingers. "That's everyone."

"Right. Well, have fun with your game. I'm going to rest."

"See you around."

"Mm."

 ** _Beast Tale Chapter 24, featuring lots of magic and lots of gay. Magical gays. Beautiful._**

 ** _It seems that Chara and Frisk are the new gossiping topic for the Underground. I'm sure they're delighted._**

 ** _I know the last couple of chapters have mostly been just worldbuilding, but hang in there (if you're still here after that impromptu hiatus). We should be getting to the "good" stuff soon._**

 ** _Don't ask my why that was in quotation marks._**

 ** _(Hint: it's because nothing good happens to anyone in the "good" parts.)_**


End file.
